Innocent Victim
by vampirebutterflyqueen
Summary: After a confrontation with James after potions, Snape decides to seek his revenge in a way James will never expect against an old friend. Will James realize what he's up to in time to stop him before someone important gets hurt?
1. The Confrontation

Hey... this is my first attempt at a LE/JP story so I hope you all like it. Feel free to leave me any constructive criticism that you think will help me improve the story. I'm sorry that the first chapter isn't really that exciting but it will improve as more chapters pass. I'm just trying to set the scene with this one.

Hugs and stuff

Katie

**Disclaimer:** I do not own or have any rights to anything mentioned, described and included in any Harry Potter related book/movie or product. This is just my interpretation of how Lily and James got together. All rights reserved to J.K. Rowling.

**Summary: After a confrontation with James after potions, Snape decides to seek his revenge in a way James will never expect against an old friend. Will James realize what he's up to in time to stop him before someone important gets hurt?**

**Innocent Victim**

"I'll make you pay for this, Potter!" A voice hissed in my ear as I shouldered past him. I ignored him, not taking his words seriously, knowing from six years of experience that he is no match for me. Severus Snape may talk the talk but when it comes to walking the walk he just doesn't match up. He gets so worked up trying to think of the nastiest, dark hexes he can throw at me that in the split second he's deciding, I can normally get in one good hex that will most of the time, literally stop him dead in his tracks.

"Whatever, Snivellus," I told him with an arrogant smirk on my face that I know seriously pisses him of. Actually, coming to think of it, I think my continued existence on the planet is one huge annoyance to him but well, that's not really my problem. It's sort of a bonus in a way, I guess. "You've never got the better of me and you never will," I pointed out before continuing on my way.

There was a loud thump as someone did the counter curse and Snape fell from the ceiling from where I'd hung him after he'd tried to hex my back as I left potions. I heard him curse under his breathe before there was a rustling sound as he climbed to his feet. Footsteps echoed behind me but I ignored them.

Well, I ignored them until he put his hand on my shoulder and tried to force me round to face him. "Get your slimy hand off my shoulder now!" I hissed at him under my breath. "Before I hex the living daylights out of you permanently," I threatened.

He removed his hand and I carried on walking but he still wouldn't let this go. He increased his pace until he was in front of me, turning to face me, completely blocking the corridor so I couldn't get past. I sighed. In the past I would normally just have blasted him out of the way with a spell or something but I couldn't do that now. I was head boy now, meant to be a responsible, rule-abiding role model for the younger students. Technically I shouldn't have hexed him either before and stuck his feet to the wall but if the teachers find out about it I could just argue that it was self defence because he did attack me first, unprovoked as well for once.

"What do you want, Snape?" I sighed, wanting to get out of this corridor and to the Great Hall where I could get some dinner. I'd missed lunch today because I'd needed to look up some information on Lethifolds for a Defence essay that had been due in after lunch. As a result it felt like my stomach was trying to eat itself in an attempt to get something to digest. For a moment I wondered if it was possible for a stomach to eat itself but then the logical side of my brain reminded me that this probably wasn't the best time to be debating whether it is possible or not for a stomach to digest itself. I pulled my mind back to the present. "You've never beaten me in a fight, Snape, and you never will so what is the point of making an even bigger fool of yourself by trying to threaten me." I pointed out calmly.

He glared at me for a moment, his eyes cold but sparkling with malice. As much as I loathe everything that Snape is and everything he stands for, even I have to admit that he is intelligent in his own way. Hell, in our first year it was rumoured that he knew more dark curses and how to perform them than any of the Slytherin seven years, who at the time prided themselves on their so-called superior knowledge of those kinds of spells. He was the seventh year male prefect in his house and he knew how to control the other students in Slytherin, stopping them from stepping too far in their rule breaking and often malicious activities aimed at the other houses.

"Well?" I prompted when he still didn't say anything. Patience, especially when I'm hungry isn't a strong point. "Are you going to tell me whatever little childish threat you have for me and stop blocking the corridor so the rest of us can go to dinner or are you going to just stand there and stare at me like that?" I said sarcastically.

"Excuse me," A soft, gentle voice broke into our, well, I guess you would call it a confrontation although that seemed like the wrong description for it until Snape decided to snap out of whatever trance or train of thought he was lost in and get the point. "Please could I get through?" The voice spoke again.

I looked down into the emerald green eyes of Lily Evans and felt a deep sense of peace settle over me. In contrast to her fiery red hair, Lily is one of the most calming and gentle to be around a lot of the time. She hates confrontations and tries to believe the best of everyone, even the Slytherins, showing kindness to everyone she meets. She's the kindest person I think I've ever met, so non-judgemental in a way that was rare to see in people nowadays. That doesn't mean to say that she doesn't have a blazing temper that occasionally she unleashes when someone really upsets her, but for the most part she tries to be everyone's friend.

Hell, she was even Snape's friend for five years before he made the stupid mistake of calling her a Mudblood in front of most of our year group after one of the OWL exams in fifth year. Back then I'd been an arrogant little berk and had been hexing Snape because I was bored and wanted to show off in front of her and a crowd of people. I won't deny I had, and still have, a huge crush on Lily Evans. I think to some extent, secretly, so does every guy in the school, even the ones that call her names and despise her very presence because she comes from a muggle family.

She'd raced over to us when she saw what I was doing to her friend. Another one of her virtues is that she's so stubbornly and unconditionally loyal to her friends and to see me humiliating him like that had triggered off her temper. She'd been yelling at me to put him down, demanding to know why I picked on him when he'd hissed at her that he didn't need help from Mudbloods like her. That had infuriated me, but Lily took it in her stride, not crying or anything like that that most girls would have done. She just took it calmly and turned back to yelling at me. That was the moment I asked her out for the first time. Huge mistake! Padfoot still won't let me live it down.

"Of course," I smiled at her warmly. She was the head girl this year and I was slowly getting closer and closer to her. I had a feeling that this might be the year I finally managed to persuade her to give me a chance and go out with me. I moved out of the way to let her passed. Snape didn't move though. His eyes fixed on Lily and there was a sadness in them that I wouldn't have believed he was capable of feeling if I hadn't of seen it for myself. "Snape? Are you going to let the Head Girl passed?" There was a subtle threat and an edge of steel in my voice that warned him to move out of the way.

"Of course, Lily," He echoed my words, moving out of her way. She gave him a curious glance as though wondering about the sarcasm in his voice and the way that he was staring at her. I noticed that the sadness in his eyes was suddenly turning coldly calculating in a way that sent a shiver down my spine.

"Thank you, Severus," She said graciously. "Thanks James," There was a little more warmth in her voice and a small smile on her lips as she thanked me which made me feel like I was almost ten feet tall or something. She turned her back and carried on walking down the corridor and for a second, both Snape and I watched her progress before getting back to the matter in hand.

"Well? Are you finally going to spit out whatever venom you want to hiss at me and let me get to dinner?" I asked calmly. "Or am I going to have to dock points from Slytherin because you're blocking the corridor?" I offered him a choice, itching to go straight ahead just dock the points from him anyway, but I wasn't going to let a lowlife like him provoke me into abusing my power. Unlike last year when I would have jumped at the chance to dock points from him for even the smallest of crimes, I wasn't that immature. I'd grown up over the summer and now I wasn't going to be manipulated into anything like that.

"I'm surprised you haven't already, Potter," He smirked at me. "After all, that's the kind of thing you do best, lording over your new power over the people who were more deserving of it that you,"

"Unlike some people," I started, heavily emphasising 'some people'. "I don't abuse my power. Now I'm giving you a choice, I suggest you make it before I start docking points," I pointed out.

"Fine," He smiled silkily at my obvious impatience. "I just wanted to remind you that you can't win every fight," He glanced over his shoulders to where Lily was just disappearing round the corner.

"What in Merlin's name do you mean by that?" I demanded, the smugness in his tone making me itch to grab him by the throat and throw him up against the wall where I could beat that smugness out of him.

"Some fights have different rules," Snape pointed out, the smugness in his voice intensifying with each word he spoke. "Different strategies that if your opponent doesn't catch onto fast enough can result in a victory that's devastating in its complete and utter effectiveness," He spoke cryptically, mockingly almost in the way that he talked to a lot of people, almost laughing inwardly at some private joke that only he knew while trying to lord his intelligence over me.

If there is one thing I don't need Snape lecturing me on, it's strategy. I've been the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team for a long time now and successfully led the team to win the cup twice in that time, added onto the other two times that we've won the cup since I joined the team. Unsurprisingly, the last person who I would ever take seriously on things like that would be the person who can't even sit on a broom without with both feet on the ground without falling off it.

"Riiiight," I said sarcastically, drawing out the first part of the word as I saw his eyes light up as though he thought I was going to react to that and start hexing him or something. I wasn't stupid enough to do that. "If that's all now, Snape, can you let us all passed? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to get something to eat," I indicated to the crowd of people who had gathered curiously behind me as if hoping to watch me hex the daylights out of him. In the past, I would have played up to the crowd and done all that and more, but now, now I didn't need to do that. I didn't need to have the attention of the entire school focused on me and what I was doing now. I didn't care if I was popular or now, I just wanted to the things that I knew was right, and not sink down to Snape's level.

"Of course," He said sarcastically polite and stepping out of the way. "But don't under estimate me, Potter. I'm not in Slytherin for nothing," He reminded me.

I headed quickly passed him, biting my tongue to stop myself from saying something like, "No you're in Slytherin because you're a dark arts obsessed creep with no social life or sense of personal hygiene that belongs with all the other slime in this school," or something like that. Just because I had grown up and matured a lot over summer, didn't mean I'd lost all sense of my mischievous side and I knew that was the fastest way to start a large scale fight in the corridor between all the Gryffindors and Slytherins. That would probably be the quickest way to land me in my first detention of the school year, something that I guessed wouldn't impress Lily or McGonagall.

I raced down the corridor after that, hurrying as fast as I could to reach the Great Hall. Normally I'd stop by at the tower to drop my things off in my dormitory and catch up with Moony, Padfoot and Wormtail before dinner but I was to impatient to do that today. The Great Hall would probably be empty right now because very few people chose to eat straightway after class, most preferring to wait an hour and a half after lessons ended till five o'clock to eat.

It didn't take my friends long to find me. They'd not had any lessons this afternoon, having dropped potions at the end of fifth year and had probably been lazing around in the common room or something. Padfoot collapsed on the bench next to me. "What happened between you and Snape before?" He demanded curiously. While I've tried to stop hexing Snape as much, Sirius has started almost trying to make up for the hexing I don't do by doubling his own. I try to stop him, at least when teachers or Lily are around but most of the time I let him do his own thing. If he gets in trouble then it's his own fault, not that a detention or losing house points troubles him too much. We'll just win them back in class or on the Quidditch field.

"He tried to attack me on the way out of potions," I told him between mouthfuls of food. "I stuck him to the ceiling in defence and tried to walk away,"

"Wow," Moony muttered. "You really are taking this head boy thing seriously, aren't you?" He sighed and I noticed there was a little bit of bitterness in his voice. I didn't blame him for that. He should have been made Head Boy over me, he was more deserving of it than a trouble making, prankster like me. I worry sometimes that he might see me getting the head boy badge as being another opportunity that I didn't deserve being dropped into my lap like it was nothing. That was another reason why I wanted to be a good Head Boy, to show Remus that I wasn't just going to blow off the responsibility.

"I know I didn't deserve it," I started quickly but he just smiled and shook his head.

"Stop worrying about it, James," He chuckled. "You'll do a much better job than I would. Everyone will do what you want them with no questions asked whereas they'd give me the third degree before doing it,"

"Shhhh, Moony," Padfoot rudely interrupted him. "You're distracting us from the important issue here!"

"Since when has Snape been an important issue?" Peter asked, nibbling on a chicken wing. "You hate his guts and everything to do with him," He added unnecessarily, not needing to remind any of us of the ill feeling that was between us and Snape.

"Snivellus has never been an important issue," Padfoot sniffed airily. "The torture of Snivellus on the other hand is a complete different matter," He sniggered.

"Fair point, Mr Padfoot," Peter snickered and went back to gnawing at his chicken.

"Thank you, Mr Wormtail," Sirius laughed. "Now, back on topic, Mr Prongs. We were watching on the map and it you walked away only for him to follow. Methinks you aren't telling us the whole story,"

"Fine," I sighed. I hadn't wanted to tell Padfoot the whole story. It was just Snape posturing and trying to talk tough but at the end of the day, as usual, they would just be empty threats. I wasn't worried about anything Snape could throw at me. "He followed me and spouted some rubbish about making me pay for hexing him, spouting off in that cryptic way of his about there being different ways and strategies to win a fight or something. It's nothing, Snape's not dumb enough to try anything against us," I shrugged.

"Don't underestimate him, James," Moony said quietly. "He's not in Slytherin for nothing," I got a weird sense of déjà vu at that.

"Woah!" I said quickly. "That's exactly what he said! That's creepy,"

Moony shuddered. "Tell me about it," He muttered darkly. Then his voice changed and he was suddenly back to his normal serious self. "But all the same, you should listen to him. You know they don't fight like us in Slytherin. They never fight fair and they'll exploit any weakness they can find."

"Yeah," Sirius glowered angrily at this. He'd grown up in a family that had been exclusively in Slytherin for generations and had seen how the twisted power games that Slytherins loved were played. "And it is sort of obvious to anyone with half a brain who your weakness is," He said dryly, his voice grave for once. He nodded his head over to the main door and I glanced over my shoulder in time to see Lily walk into the Hall with a girl from Hufflepuff.

"He wouldn't dare!" I said angrily at the thought of Snape hurting Lily. It caused my blood to boil. "He worships the ground she walks on in that sly creepy way of his. You know he'd do anything to get her to forgive him if he could."

"True," Moony agreed, though his brow creased in worry as he watched Lily walk over to the Hufflepuff table with the girl and sit down. Moony had quite a close friendship with Lily and he didn't like the thought of anyone hurting her. When he first found out I had a crush on her he made me swear on my family and friend's lives that I would never, ever even dream of hurting her. He looks at her like a younger sister that he never had. Heaven help anyone that tries to mess with her with Moony and I around! "Just ignore him unless he says anything else on the matter. It was probably just Snape trying to get a reaction out of you. I can't believe he'd be that stupid," He said reassuringly.

I clenched my fists around my cutlery. It had better just have been Snape trying to get a rise out of me! He'd be spending the rest of his miserable life as a human vegetable in St. Mungo's if he tried making good his threat!


	2. Decoding the Slytherin Mind

**Lily's Point of View**

"What's up with Potter?" Marlene McKinnon ran over to me in the common room that night. "I heard that Snivellus tried to hex him in the corridor after your potion class today and apart from hexing him to the ceiling, James did nothing."

"That's true," I confirmed distractedly as I scoured through my Potions text book looking for the answers for the questions about potions based transfiguration that Slughorn had set this afternoon. "I was there when it happened. I was the one who let him down off the ceiling when Potter walked away. And his name is Snape," I rebuked her gently, hating the way that the foul nickname rolled so easily off her tongue

"But James never backs down from a chance to hex Snivellus," Marlene spluttered, completely ignoring me. "That can't be the real James Potter! It's like an unwritten law of the universe that any confrontation between James and Snivellus, there has to be some kind of epic duel where James shows that Slytherin slimeball just who exactly is the better man. Half Blood Prince indeed! If you ask me, he's just trying to make the fact that he's only a half blood sound more impressive than it really is for when he becomes a Death Eater" She said coldly, sending a chill of fear into my heart at the mention of the Death Eaters. As a Muggleborn witch, I knew that the minute I left Hogwarts, I would be one of the people most at risk from these pureblood fanatics and a person would have to be insane not to be scared almost witless at the thought of what they could do to a person.

"Please, Marly, don't say things like that," I pleaded with her, hating the thought of my old friend getting caught up in something like that. Despite the fact that we were no longer friends and the fact that recently he had started openly treating me with contempt, I still cared for him and wished that one day he would wake up and see what was really going on with Voldemort and his Death Eaters and do what's right. "You can't know that that is what he will do and it's not nice to speculate like that. And please don't call him Snivellus. It's almost as bad as calling someone a Mudblood and he is still a person and he still has feelings. It must hurt a lot for him to have everyone calling him that, day in, day out," I pointed out, knowing that it was futile but making the effort anyway. I know some people make fun of me and think that I'm too kind for my own good but I just can't help it. Sometimes you just can't stop defending people and caring for them, even when they clearly don't want or need you too.

"Lily, you're too nice and trusting for your own good," Marlene shook her head. "If he doesn't want people being nasty to him then he shouldn't be a completely nasty piece of work himself. It's karma coming round to bite him in the ass!" She justified her actions with a shrug and a grin.

"Better watch your own ass carefully then," I suggested dryly to her, not buying her explanation one little bit. "Or karma might come and bite you there too,"

"If it does it won't be for calling Snivellus names," Marlene shook her head, ignoring my warning. "Anyway, let's not fight about Snivellus. We have more important things to talk about," She insisted.

"Yes, because James Potter is the most important topic of conversation this decade," I commented dryly.

"More like this century," Sirius Black sniggered as he walked past my sofa on the way towards the common room entrance. He was on his own so I guessed he was off to meet his girlfriend. If he was going to cause mischief or set up some elaborate prank then Peter Pettigrew, Remus and James would have been with him.

"Go away, Black!" Marlene glared at him impatiently, not wanting to hear his take on James as a topic of conversation. "Go and find your girlfriend and leave the rest of us in peace," She told him bossily with a wink as she tried to distract him from what he had overheard. Marlene is quite close to James and if I didn't know her better I would swear she had a slight crush on him. If James knew that she had been talking about him then he would tease her something rotten about it tomorrow.

Sirius laughed and with a nod and a wink back at Marlene, carried on towards the portrait hole. "And make sure your back by curfew, Black. I'd hate to have to dock points if I catch you trying to sneak back in when I'm on patrol later," I yelled after him teasingly. I've never caught Black out of bounds after curfew on any of my patrols but it was common knowledge that his attitude towards the curfew was more that it was a guideline for when students should consider going back to the common room rather than a set in stone rule and because he knew where all the secret passages where in the school he was never caught roaming the school after hours.

"I promise I won't, Tiger-Lily," He called back to me as he swung the portrait hole open and disappeared out through it. I blushed at the nickname, once more reminded of how bad my temper was on the rare occasions that I lost it. He doesn't mean anything bad or malicious by it and in fact he probably thinks of it as a term of endearment, in a purely platonic way of course, but I hated being reminded of the lack of control I sometimes had over my temper.

I'd hoped that that slight interruption would have distracted Marlene from what she wanted to talk about because I felt a little bit uncomfortable talking about James like he was some sort of specimen in a science experiment or something. He was sort of my friend and it just felt disloyal to talk about him like this.

"So what is wrong with James?" She demanded, proving that I just wasn't that lucky. "Why the hell didn't he hex the hell out of Snivellus?"

"Maybe because he's the Head Boy and it's up to him to set an example to all the other students how to act and hexing other people in the corridor isn't the best way to set a good one or maybe he's just grown up over the summer and doesn't have to hex everyone in sight just to prove that he's a good wizard," I suggested impatiently with a sigh. "I really don't know, Marlene, you'll just have to go and ask him." I suggested calmly knowing that she would never even dream of doing that.

"James Potter growing up and maturing?" Marlene shook her head at the thought. "The biggest prankster in the school settling down and following the rules, it's just not right. It's like snow falling in hell or the Malfoy family becoming avid supports of Inter Muggle-Wizard relations, it just shouldn't happen,"

"Why ever not? People can change and grow up, you know," I reminded her softly. "It's not for us to say who or what someone else can be," I pointed out.

"I know, I know," She sighed. "It's just if Potter and Black stop playing their pranks, it will be like something is missing from Hogwarts, like some of the magic has disappeared." She laughed wistfully and I joined in at the thought of Hogwarts losing any of its magic. It had to be the most magical place in the world and would always be so in my eyes. I will never ever forget my first sight of Hogwarts castle, six years ago from the boats that carried the first years over the lake to the castle.

"Somehow, I can't see Black ever giving up playing his pranks on people, Marly," I reassured her with a grin. Some of their pranks in the past had been rather funny at times and I'm not so straitlaced and rule abiding that I won't openly admit that. "So I doubt any of the 'magic' will be missing,"

"True," Marlene grinned, visibly cheered up by this thought. Sometimes I just can't keep up with Marlene's mood swings. She can go from being mildly irritated by something to angry or irritated to depressed to happy all in the space of a few seconds. It makes my head spin sometimes just trying to keep up with her. "So does that mean you would give him a chance if he asked you out again?" Marlene asked curiously, changing the subject quickly.

The change came completely out of nowhere and I had no idea what she was talking about so all I could do was stare blankly up at her for a moment. "Give who a chance?" I asked confusedly.

"James, of course, silly! You said sometime last year that if he would just grow up a little and stop showing off so much he would be the kind of guy that you'd want to date. He's funny, intelligent and incredibly good looking, what more could you want in a guy?" She pointed out, reminding me of that particular comment.

"Marlene," I sighed. She's been trying to pair me up with someone ever since our third year when she got her first boyfriend but I'd always managed to avoid her attempts at matchmaking. I didn't want to go out with anyone unless I had proper feelings for them and I just hadn't met anyone yet who made my heart beat faster, who stood out from the crowd as being someone special, someone who deserved my love. "Whatever you're plotting, please don't."

"Me? Plot anything?" She pretended to look shocked at that but she couldn't manage to hide the twinkle in her eyes as she said that. She was about to defend all the plans that she had made in the past that had completely failed when the common room fell silent for a second. I looked up from my book to see James appearing in the door to the stair case that led up the boy's dormitory. I guess everyone was still talking about the fact that he didn't hex Snape today and his reasons behind them. No doubt the rumour mill was in full swing, embellishing every little detail with something wildly improbable and unbelievable. I glanced back at Marlene who seemed to be studying James closely like this was the first time she had ever seen him. "You know," She said thoughtfully after a moment as though she had only just realised something which should have been obvious to her all along. "You two would make a great looking couple," She observed.

"What?" I stared at her in shock. "What on earth are you going on about?"

"Well what could be better? One of the handsomest guys in the whole school and the best looking girl in the school dating?" Marlene asked in surprise as if unable to grasp my disinterest in what she was talking about. "You'd make the cutest couple Hogwarts has ever seen,"

"And good looks are all that matters in a relationship?" I arched my eyebrow sceptically at Marlene. She is my best friend in the whole world but even after knowing her since first year, I still don't always completely understand her thought patterns and logic.

"Well it doesn't hurt to have a good looking partner," Marlene pointed out. "And he is one hell of a good looking guy,"

"And what about feelings and personalities?" I asked softly looking back down at my book to hide the blush forming on my face. Marly sometimes teases me about my view on romance and relationships but it seems to me that there isn't anything wrong in secretly hoping and dreaming that my life might have a fairy tale ending. "Isn't the way a person is on the inside more important that how good a person looks on the outside?"

"Of course it is," A voice spoke quietly in my ear and I jumped in surprise knocking my text book off my lap and onto the floor. James chuckled and knelt down to pick it up, causing me to blush in embarrassment again that I'd been so clumsy. "But you, my dearest Lily, are truly gorgeous on the inside and the outside. A man would have to be blind and stupid to not instantly fall hopelessly in love with you the moment they saw you," He joked softly with me and my blush deepened. I knew he was only trying to make me blush, to joke with me like a friend but I couldn't help but be charmed by him.

"Thank you, James," I smiled back at him, all the while mentally willing my body to cool my burning cheeks to no avail.

"So they'd have to be like you then not to notice that," Marlene teased James and he glanced away from me. I shot Marlene a grateful smile that she distracted him while I tried to get my face to return to its normal colour. She had a weird glint in her eyes that if I'd have been paying closer attention too would have worried me a little but I was too distracted to notice.

"I'll have you know that I fell in love with the most heavenly and beautiful Lily on the planet the first time I saw her and have faithfully worshipped the ground she has walked on ever since, forsaking all other goddesses to focus on the greatest of them all," He said, trying to look seriously but there was a burning intensity in his eyes that told me that he meant every word. I've known for a while that James has a slight crush on me but I've never acknowledged it at all because I don't know how I feel about that and I don't want to hurt his feelings. Even before he matured, when he was still hexing anything that so much as even twitched in the corridors in past years, deep down he was still a nice, loyal, dependable guy who didn't deserve to have his feelings stomped on and hurt.

"Oh, we know," Marlene laughed.

"Stop messing around, you two," I said gently, smiling at both of them. "Is there anything you wanted James?" I asked him softly and his eyes swung back to me, his face losing some of the teasing expression as it did.

"Yeah," He sighed. "As much as it pains me to abandon my wild and reckless ways to become rule abiding and responsible, even for an hour or so, it is time for us to do our rounds," He reminded.

"Is it that time already?" I asked as I sighed and placed my textbook back in my bag. Sometimes it seemed like there was never enough hours in the day to finish all my school work.

"Unluckily for you but luckily for me, it is that time of night again," He sighed. "Sometimes this responsibility malarkey seems like more bother than it's worth," He chuckled.

"Only sometimes?" I questioned curiously. "I would have thought you would have found all of it more bothersome than it was worth," I teased him jokingly.

"Well any time spent with you could never be anything but life changing, Lily darling," He winked outrageously at me as he teased me back and I couldn't help but laugh at the twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

"Oh stop your babbling," I told him as the flush I'd worked so hard to banish from my face reappeared. "Come on, the sooner we start the sooner tonight's patrols will be done,"

"It's not babbling, Lily, it's called flirting," Marlene pointed out coyly. I just ignored her, placed my bag carefully next to her chair where no one would move it till I got back.

"I'll see you later," I told her with a grin. "Don't forget to make a start on that Charms essay that's due in tomorrow. Flitwick won't be too pleased if you forget to hand another piece in," I pointed out, remembering how much trouble she had gotten into the last time she had forgotten to hand one in.

She groaned and pulled her own textbook out of her bag. "Thanks for the reminder, Lily," She said sourly. "I was hoping if I just ignored it and refused to acknowledge its very existence it would just disappear altogether,"

"You wish," I laughed before turning and following James over to the portrait hole. He swung it open and then stood aside for me to step through it first. He followed quickly through after me and then put his hand gently on my arm to lead me in a different direction to route we normally took. "Erm, James?" I said questioningly as he led me down the corridor.

"Yes?" He asked, looking down and meeting my eyes.

"Why are we going this way?" I asked curiously. "We never normally go this way," I pointed out. The corridors we were walking down weren't the most commonly used ones in the school because they didn't really lead anywhere where students would particularly want to go.

"I know," He sighed softly and I noticed that his eyes hardened a little as though there was something troubling him that he wanted to talk about but couldn't quite make his mind up whether to ask me. "But there might be something I need to ask your advice about and if that is the case I don't want anyone to overhear us,"

"Oh," I said, unsure what to say about that. "How can there be something you only might need advice on? Surely there either is something I can help you with or there isn't," I pointed out, confused.

"I'm trying to work out whether it's worth wasting your time with or not," He admitted sheepishly. "I can't help thinking it might just turn out to be nothing,"

"Tell me anyway," I offered. "They do say that a problem shared is a problem halved," I reminded him. I won't deny his mysterious words had aroused my curiosity and I badly wanted an explanation now but I wouldn't force him to tell me if he didn't want to.

There was sudden pause as though he was thinking carefully about what to say. It surprised me a little because I don't think I've ever seen James at a loss for words before. Something really must be bothering him for him to be like this. "I don't know where to begin." He admitted after a couple of seconds had passed.

"Is it to do with a girl?" I guessed, weirdly feeling a sense of relief when he shook his head that was only partly to do with the fact that I'm probably the last person someone should come to for relationship advice, having no experience in anything like that.

"No, no, no," He smiled sheepishly. "It's nothing to do with that. It's actually to do with Sniv…" He started to say but then saw my glare and quickly changed what he was trying to say, "It's to do with Snape actually and because you two were friends for so long I thought you might be able to give me an insight into what he might be up to," He trailed off awkwardly, looking down at his feet for a moment.

"I doubt I'll be any more the wiser than you," I said truthfully. "I haven't spoken to him in any great depth since the end of fifth year and I think he must have changed an awful lot since then,"

"But you know how his mind works, how he thinks about things in a way I don't," James said quietly. "And I know I might just be overreacting to something he probably just said to make himself tough and to try and scare me a little, but I can't help thinking that someone might get seriously hurt if I don't heed them carefully,"

I frowned, not liking the tone of his words. "If Snape is threatening to hurt someone you have to tell McGonagall or Slughorn," I told him quickly. "They can stop him before they get hurt,"

"I can't go to them yet," James sighed shaking his head in annoyance.

"Why not?" I asked softly. If James didn't want to go and tell a teacher just yet there had to be a good reason.

"Because he hasn't actually threatened anybody outright, hell he hasn't even actually come right out and made a threat at all," James sighed in frustration. "That's the problem really, he just spouted some nonsense about me not being able to win every fight and that there are some games that I don't know the rules to, let alone the right strategies to win it,"

"That's very cryptic," I agreed, my brow furrowing in thought as I considered his words. A silence fell for a couple of minutes while I struggled with trying to work out what the boy I knew years ago would have meant by that?

"Any ideas about what he might have meant and whether I should take him seriously?" James asked, interrupting the silence when it became too much.

"Definitely take his words seriously," I told him firmly, this much I was confident about. "Sev never wastes his breath saying things he doesn't mean. If he's insinuated that he's going to do something that you won't expect then he will be planning something,"

"But what is he planning?" He demanded softly. We turned a corner and headed up a flight of stairs to a corridor that I didn't recognise. I guess this was a part of the castle that either I had never been in before or that I had only been through a couple of times and it just hadn't registered on my memory.

"Something subtle and underhand," I guessed. Severus loved the subtle intricacies of plots and deceits that were ripe within his own house and had learnt from the best how to take the most painful form of revenge possible. "Unlike you, he won't go for an open and fair attack because from past experience, anybody with two brain cells to rub together will know that that won't work. He'll try and strike you where he perceives you are at your weakest where he can be at his strongest with all the odds stacked in his favour," I shrugged, hoping that I was right and not leading James up the wrong train of thoughts.

"Shit," James swore under his breath. "That could be anyone of four people," This made me extremely curious as to what James's weaknesses were. He comes across a lot of the time like the kind of person who doesn't any fears or weaknesses, even though I know that that idea is crazy because everyone has some weakness. I guess it's just the way that he always seems to face everything face on and unflinchingly.

The corridors seemed to get darker and darker as we walked along and until the point that some of these empty, echoing corridors took on a gruesome, eerie feeling that sent shivers down my spine. I pulled my wand and muttered _Lumos _under my breath. James looked curiously at me when I did that, obviously having not felt the same feeling of unease I did. But to be honest he's probably used to the dark corridors after all the years he's spent roaming the corridors after hours, probably discovering all the secrets of the place. Hell, he probably knows this place better than any other person who ever walked these corridors.

"Is there anyway of narrowing down the options?" I prompted softly to take my thoughts of the unsettling stillness around me. I always find these night patrols a bit weird because I'm so used to the bustling corridors full of students and when they are empty, it's just completely different like it's a whole new place.

"Maybe three if he still fears what Dumbledore will do to him if he breaks his word," James mused to himself in a whisper as though he was thinking out loud and didn't intend for me to hear them. The louder and clearly aimed at me he asked, "Is there anyway that I could find out anymore on what he's planning?"

"You personally?" I questioned. "I highly doubt it. Without Veritaserum you don't have a cat in hell's chance of Snape telling you what he's planning," I told him honestly.

"Does Slughorn have any knocking around in his office?" James asked and I could tell just by looking in his eyes that he was already plotting and scheming. I could have kicked myself for giving him the idea; it was that obvious what he was planning. It was a typical Potter and Black way of dealing with things.

"No he doesn't!" I glared at James. "Its use is strictly controlled by the Ministry and it's so tricky to make that I doubt even I could mix it up," I told him sternly. It was the kind of thing he should know about. After all, he is a pure-blood wizard.

James nodded, accepting that forcing the truth out of Snape wouldn't be achieved that way. "What about you?" He asked me suddenly.

"What about me? I've just told you I can't mix a potion that complex up," I told him, rolling my eyes in exasperation. I wouldn't even dream of attempting to mix it up, I'd probably end up mixing some poison that would kill the person who drank it or made them grow an extra head or something.

"No, I mean would you be able to get him to tell you what he's up to?" James corrected me.

I thought about this for a moment. "Two years ago I would have said that I could have gotten anything out of him but now I probably couldn't even get today's date out of him," I sighed. "He wouldn't trust me not to tell you and he would tell people he trusts unconditionally,"

"Damn!" James swore again. "So basically all I can do is sit around and wait for the bastard to attack someone in whatever foul way his twisted brain can think up with what ever dark curse he wants and there's nothing I can do to stop him," He looked like he wanted to punch the wall in his anger.

A sudden brainwave came to me. "Wait a minute," I said slowly. "Someone might be able to goad it out of him if they can get him mad enough. He loses some of his control when it comes to what he says when he really loses his temper. That's probably your best bet if you really want to know," I told him.

"So all I need to do is get him angry and he should spill the beans?" James repeated.

"No," I interrupted. "You need to get someone else close to you to wind him up and get him angry. Even when he's angry he's not stupid enough to give you any more clues. My advice would be, and if you tell anyone I suggested this I will deny all knowledge of this conversation," I warned him quickly. "Is to get either Sirius or Remus to do it while you're not around to do it for you. We can't have the head boy picking a fight in the corridors after all."

"Good point," He agreed with me. "I'll get them right onto it tomorrow,"

"No," I said quickly. "Leave it for a few days."

"WHAT?" James yelled at me in shock at my words and I flinched away from him in shock. He saw this and quietened his tone when he spoke again. "We can't wait a few days! Snape might do whatever he's plotting while we wait!"

"He won't," I said confidently. "He'll draw this out for as long as he can," I told him seriously.

"How do you know that?" James demanded.

"Because he's got you, the mighty, infallible James Potter, squirming and dancing to his tune while you wait for him to make his move and he'll want to make that last as long as possible, draw the tension out until you're so close to snapping that you'll slip up and make a huge mistake or something,"


	3. Miracles Do Happen

**Disclaimer:** I do not own or have any rights to anything mentioned, described and included in any Harry Potter related book/movie or product. This is just my interpretation of how Lily and James got together. All rights reserved to J.K. Rowling.

**James's P.O.V.  
**

"Hey! Potter!" A snide, sarcastic voice called down the corridor behind me as I headed to my first lesson of the day.

I groaned, "Not today," I muttered under my breath as I rolled my eyes. I really didn't want to have to see, let alone deal with, Snivellus today. Like Lily had suggested last night, I was trying to leave Snape alone for a few days before I got Padfoot and Moony to confront him and see what information they can worm out of him but I know myself well enough that if I'm provoked by him today, I'll just end up trying to hex the information out of him any way possible and that sure as hell won't go down well with Dumbledore or McGonagall.

Sirius glanced over his shoulders at my muttered remark and a wide, harsh grin spread across his face. "Oh goody," He said happily and his eyes twinkled. "A nice hearty breakfast and a quick game of hex the pants of the Slimeball Slytherin himself, could my morning get any better?" He asked me cheerfully as his hand disappeared inside his robes, presumably to grab his wand.

I sighed. Padfoot is the one student in the school that I have no authority over. He does just exactly what he pleases, irrespective of my position as the Head Boy and uncaring about the effects on other people. "Padfoot, would it be too much to ask you to leave Snivellus alone for a few days and not try and pick a duel with him every time you so much as even catch a glimpse of him?" I asked, resigned to the fact that I knew his answer would probably be a negative one.

"Damn straight it would be too much to ask me to do that," He answered in that irritating and patronising tone of voice he only ever uses when he's deliberately stating the obvious to someone in order to prove some point. "Just because you're the Head Boy now and have to set a good example to all the other little munchkins in this place, doesn't mean that I have to walk around like there's a broom stuck up my backside, following all the rules and pouncing on small children ready to dock points from them for daring to sneeze in the wrong places,"

I wanted to kick him. I don't think Sirius understands how serious this threat that Snivellus has made could turn out to be. Knowing Padfoot, he will have decided last night that Snivellus was bluffing and will have just forgotten about it. "I'd hardly say that trying to hex the pants of someone who has technically in this moment done nothing to deserve it is the same category as taking points of students for being out of bounds at night," I pointed out to him calmly.

"That's just semantics," He just shrugged and once more I got the urge to kick him. "Besides, who are you to yell at kids for being out of their dormitories after curfew? As I recall it was the rare night when we were in our room after curfew," Padfoot chuckled to himself about that. The fact that I had been made head boy seemed to be just one long endless joke to him.

"That's not the point!" I glared at him, searching my mind for a way to lay off Snivellus for a few days.

"I also seem to recall you hexing old Snivvy in the past for merely existing," He pointed out with a grin. "So you'll have to excuse me if I'm only following the example set for me by our very own head boy," He said sarcastically.

"Padfoot, I'll make you a deal," An idea suddenly formed quickly in my mind.

"Okay, I'm listening," He rolled his eyes, probably planning to disagree with anything that I said anyway and just what he wanted to anyway.

"If you don't hex Snivellus now, or do anything at all to provoke him for two days, I'll let you hex him and curse him all you like and as long as there are no teachers or other prefects around, Lily and I will do nothing to try and stop you or punish you on Thursday." I hated myself for having to offer him this but I couldn't think of any other way to stop him. As much as Sirius and I joke about all the detentions we've been in and generally them to be a pretty ineffective punishment but they are still a drag to do and eat into our social time if we have to do them.

"Fine," Sirius said irritably. "Thanks for killing my early morning buzz," He groaned as we reached our classroom. I leaned against the wall and watched as more people arrived for class. Snape was heading over in my direction to.

"Yeah but just think of the buzz you'll get on Thursday," I grinned, trying to boost his mood. I didn't want to have to put up with a grumpy Sirius all day.

"True," He grinned at that thought, distracted by it for a moment before it suddenly dawned on him to ask. "What's so special about Thursday?" He demanded.

I was about to answer when Snape finally reached us and he wasn't alone. Avery and Nott hovered behind him, cruel grins plastered on their sharp faces as they looked on. "Never thought I'd see the day Potter would send a girl to fight his own battles!" He sneered at me and Avery and Nott sniggered at his words. If Snape was trying to use them to intimidate me then he was completely underestimating me. "So much for Gryffindors being the brave ones in this school if they have to get girls to fight their own battles for them,"

His words confused me. What the hell was he talking about? "What the hell are you on about, Snivellus?" I demanded angrily. "As far as I was aware I wasn't fighting any battles with anyone, let alone someone I couldn't beat so why on earth would you be thinking that?" I asked, forcing my voice to be cool and calm.

"Oh and sending Evans after me this morning, demanding to know what the hell I was playing at wasn't your idea?" He sneered at me. "If you don't think you're man enough to play with the big boys then just come out and say it! I'm sure no one will think any less of you for it," He said silkily as though I was so lowly thought of by everyone in this school that their opinion of me couldn't get much lower. Stupid deluded fool. He knew he was getting to me, though, by playing the whole coward card and he knew I couldn't do anything back to him, not when the Arithmancy teacher could turn up at any minute.

"Excuse me?" I asked calmly again, trying to ignore the urge to just punch him in his smug, greasy little face right this minute. "I have no idea what you're talking about," Sometimes pretending ignorance is the best way to get someone to explain what on earth their rambling on about.

"I'm sure you don't," Snape sneered at me, lips curled in disgust. "Like I'm sure there are a lot of things that go on in this school that you claim to have no idea about," He insinuated nastily. To anyone looking in they would have just thought that Snape was talking about all the pranks and things that I've pulled in the past but Sirius and I know just exactly what he's referring to there. I can hear Sirius growling next to me and it's taking all my self not to hex him right now.

"Whatever, Snivellus," I shrugged unconcernedly. "We long ago figured you were all talk and now you just have to go and prove it again. Trust me, I don't need reminding,"

"But you do need a girl to come and tell me to back off whatever it is you think I'm planning," His eyes seemed to darken maliciously, even in the bright corridor. "Evans pulled me aside to have a little 'chat' with me this morning." He acted as though he was disgusted that Lily had spoken to him today but I saw through his little façade. Anyone with any sense, or at least spent five years bitterly watching their friendship from a distance, knows that Snape has always worshipped the ground that she walks on and will probably always do. I almost feel sorry for the guy for messing that friendship up, I reckon he's the one person who, if they had stayed friends, would have had the best chance with her.

"Bet it was the highlight of your miserable year, Snivellus," I grinned sarcastically at him. "Someone as intelligent, beautiful and generous as Lily deigning to waste her time on you, I bet nothing as good as that will ever happen to you again this year," I felt bad rubbing his nose in the fact that I could pretty much talk to Lily whenever I liked now while he couldn't.

"Not really," Avery broke in at that point. "She's only a filthy, little Mudblood! No one special at all! She should be grateful there are silly fools like Dumbledore are stupid enough to let scum like that into this school,"

I saw red at that point; my hand was diving into my pocket as I was thinking of all the curses that I knew that would put those smug, self righteous Slytherin bastards in the hospital wing for months to come. I swear I would have done it too and to hell with the consequences of it.  
But I never got the chance to because from behind me a soft voice broke into the conversation.

"Five points from Slytherin, Avery," I spun and saw Lily behind me, looking as calm and serene as ever. I don't know how she puts up with it. I mean, she must get a hell of a lot of grief from all the Slytherins on an every day basis because of her family background but she never lets it get her down; she's extremely proud of the fact that her parents are both Muggles and won't let anyone make her feel unworthy because of that. "And as for Dumbledore being a fool, one might question the fact that he lets so many pureblood children in when their families over many generations have managed to almost completely breed intelligence out of their bloodlines."

Avery's face went red at this. He wasn't the brightest student in the school and neither were a lot of his friends whereas it seemed to some people that Lily was just effortlessly brilliant at every subject she'd ever tried. They didn't see all the hard work that she put in behind the scenes but everyone knows that she is the best witch in the school, one of the reasons that she was chosen above all the other seventh year girls to be the head girl.

Before anyone else could say anything, the teacher arrived at the classroom and ushered us all inside. I headed with Sirius to the back where we normally sat, shocked when Lily came and sat in the seat next to me where Moony normally sat. He'd been called to a career's advice meeting with McGonagall just after breakfast and I didn't expect to see him again until break.

Professor Vector started the lesson off in her normal way, quickly settling into her normal lecturing mode and students all around me started taking notes. I didn't bother with this, choosing to focus on exactly what Vector was saying rather than trying to multitask and try and listen and take notes at the same time. Arithmancy has to be one of my weakest subjects and I rely heavily on Padfoot (who is a complete and utter genius at it) to take the notes for me and explain anything that my mind struggles to cope with. I never wanted to do this subject when we were made to chose subjects in third year. I would have much rather have taken Muggle Studies or Divination with my other choice of Care of Magical Creatures but my mother insisted that I take Arithmancy.

There was a tap on my arm and I looked down to see Lily passing me a note. I stared at it in shock for a moment and then looked up at her. She glanced up from her notes at that moment and caught my shocked glance and winked at me. My breathe caught in my throat at the sparkle in her eyes and that tiny, almost invisible little smile. She could give the Mona Lisa a run for its money with that smile, I thought to myself as I opened the note.

_Sorry about the trouble in the corridor before class. I never thought Severus would see it as you sending me to ask him to back off.  
_

This surprised me too. I wasn't expecting her to apologise for how Snape had acted in the corridor. He probably would have tried to have made a scene over something anyway and Lily just gave him the excuse he needed to do that._Don't worry about it._

_Snivellus would have just have picked a fight over something else anyway. That's just the way things are. It's no big deal, honest.  
_

I slid the note back to her and watched her face out of the corner of my eye as she read it. She seemed visibly relieved that I wasn't angry with her or anything. As if anyone could get angry with Lily Evans. I mean she's not perfect but she never deliberately sets out to hurt anyone or do anything wrong that was seriously against the rules. I watch her bite her bottom lip as her quill danced along the parchment as she neatly wrote her reply.

_Thanks but I shouldn't have stuck my nose in. It's not like it did much good anyway.  
_

She slid the peace of parchment back in front of me just as the teacher called on Lily for an answer. "Miss Evans, what is the other term used to described Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's method of divination through numbers?" She asked irritably, as though she suspected that Lily hadn't been much paying attention to what had been said. I could see that Vector was hoping to catch her out with a difficult question.

Lily blushed at being caught out at being inattentive but quickly answered the question.

"Agrippa's method is sometimes known as Pythagorean although there is no link between him and the famous Muggle Pythagoras." She answered quickly and concisely as though this was a simple question that any student should know after their first ever lesson in this subject.

"Correct, Miss Evans," Vector frowned as though disappointed that Lily had answered. "Five point to Gryffindor." She said in an annoyed tone before going back to her lecture.

_How on earth do you remember all these things? I wouldn't have had a clue what the answer was!!  
_

Lily raised her eyebrow at this as though in disbelief and shook her head slightly at this as though astonished that I didn't know the answer.

_Pythagoras' Theorem is a rule used by muggle school children to work out the length of sides in a right angled __triangle__. Basically the square of the longest side should equal the total of the other two sides squared. I remembered my sister moaning about it in one of her letters and I just always associate it with that.  
_

I didn't really understand of her description of the triangle theory thing. It confused me just thinking about it. Muggle school children mustn't be as thick as some people make them out to be if they have to learn things like this in their schools. I almost felt sorry for them but then realized that they probably didn't have to do this subject which seemed to me to be even harder.

_That makes absolutely no sense to me what-so-ever. Did you learn anything from Snivellus.  
_

I watched her again out of the corner of my eyes as she rolled her eyes again at my reply and had to disguise a snigger of laughter as a cough to avoid drawing Vector's attention to us. As she hurriedly wrote her reply back to me, I turned and glanced at Sirius who must have been watching us for a few moments before I looked his way. He wiggled his eyebrows encouragingly at me, flicked some of his black hair out of his face before going back to his note taking.

Normally he doesn't bother taking notes in this class, we leave that kind of thing to Remus and then just duplicate his notes after class but with him not being here, Padfoot was forced to take on that job because we know from past experience that if they leave the note taking to me, all we'll end up is a page full of random phrases that make no sense to anyone.

_Nothing really. He seemed shocked to almost silence that I was talking to him and then when he did start talking again he start mumbling incoherently that he was really sorry but it was the only way he could teach you a lesson and that he really wished that it hadn't come to this.  
_

I took that to mean that Snivellus was sorry that Lily had been dragged into this rather than him being sorry for hating me and needing to teach me a lesson. Snivellus and I have always hated each other, even long before we started Hogwarts and some things just never change.

_That doesn't help me at all!! All that shows is that he definitely planning something against me.  
_

Lily's eyes widened a little as she read through my note, sensing the frustration behind my words.

_I'm sorry I couldn't find out more. At least now you know he's definitely targeting you and not someone else. __You're__ more than a match for anything that he tries to throw at you.  
_

She meant her words to be soothing and reassuring but I couldn't honestly believe that Snape was going to target me directly in whatever little scheme he had cooked up. He's failed so many times in the past when he's tried to directly lash out at me to know that it just won't work. Snape might be a disgusting slimeball, but he isn't idiot enough to keep trying a way that won't work. I know that this time he'll change the rules and use someone else to try and hurt me. I didn't want to worry Lily with my theory though; she has more than enough to deal with without me adding this to her load. Whatever it is, I deal with on my own with help from my friends if I need it.

I could have walked on air or even water though when I read the part about me being more than a match for Snape. I couldn't believe that Lily had that kind of confidence in me. I mean sure, everyone knows I've always come off the winner in past confrontations but for some reason, this just seems different. Maybe because, in the past I was always one of, if not the only, instigator of the fights and Snape ended up being the victim whereas this time I'm sort of being forced into this confrontation by Snivellus, who, in a weird role reversal, has sort of become the aggressor in all this. Not that I intend to let him make me, or anyone else for that matter, the victim in this confrontation.

_I suppose so.  
_

I slowly wrote these three words on the parchment, unsure of how to reply to that without sounding cocky or arrogant, all traits that I know Lily hates in me. I was about to pass her the note back when I suddenly scrawled out a question onto the end of the message and then passed it back before I could chicken out of sending it.

_Do you really think I'm a match for anything Snivellus throws at me?  
_

Lily looked up in surprise at that and I could see her mouth twitch as she had to repress some sarcastic remark before she picked her quill up and slowly wrote her answer.

_Looking back at past results in these little spats you have with Severus, the odds seemed to be in your favour to win. I'll be honest, as good as Snape's knowledge of duelling spells is, I wouldn't bet against you in a fight!  
_

This time is was my turn to almost come out with a sarcastic comment. It's not good knowledge of duelling spells that Snivellus has, it's more a horrifically good knowledge of dark hexes and curses. Still, it was nice to know that she believed in me like that.

_Thanks. Hey, I was wondering, if you're not busy on the day of the next Hogsmede trip whether you'd like to go for a butterbeer with Sirius, Remus, Peter and I at The Three Broomsticks or something?  
_

I was extremely nervous as I waited for her answer, not sure what to expect. All the times in the past that I've asked her out she's always said no and I wasn't expecting that to change this time. But I can live in hope I guess. Maybe the fact that I haven't asked her out on a date in over four months will count in my favour.

_Sure. I'll be looking forward to it.  
_

I swear I'm going to get this note framed and hang it on my wall to commemorate the moment when Lily Evans finally agreed to willingly spend time with me outside Head student meetings and things like that. Things have to be looking good for my chances with her after this, even though technically it's not a date or anything. After all, Moony, Wormtail and Padfoot will be there too but it is a start and it's more than I've ever achieved on my own in the past.

_Thank you!  
_

She smiled gently back at me and then turned her full focus back onto the lesson, diligently taking notes down on the rest of the lecture, scribbling down sums in the margins as she worked out the answers to some of the questions Vector asked us. I had no idea what was covered in the rest of that lecture. I was so happy, so elated that my mind couldn't focus on anything as trivial as something like Arithmancy. My thoughts wandered as I got lost in my own thoughts, blissfully unaware of time passing me by.

When the bell rang, marking the end of class, I jumped to my feet in surprise, shocked out of my thoughts. I carelessly shoved my books and parchment back into my bag, closed my ink bottle and placed it and the quill in a separate pocket before waiting for Lily to pack her own things up so I could walk her from class.

I was too nervous to say anything as we headed out into the corridor. If asked at that point, I probably wouldn't have been able to tell anyone my own name. Sirius started chatting to one of the girls from Ravenclaw as we all headed down the corridor towards Transfiguration.

We'd gotten about a third of the way down the corridor, when I heard Lily gasp in surprise and then suddenly trip, falling to the floor flat on her face, her bag falling off her shoulder and her bottles of ink smashing over her books and notes as they spilled out onto the corridor. I knelt down to help her up and gather her things together when I heard cold laughter and sniggers behind me.

I turned a looked up into Snivellus's cold eyes and he met my gaze unflinchingly.

"Oh look, the Mudblood's finally found her place in life," Avery said snidely, still laughing at Lily as she gracefully picked herself up and started to try and sort her notes own before they got blown away by the wind created from so many students walking past. "On the floor with all the vermin and blood traitors. Isn't that sweet!" He taunted me, sniggering at his own joke as thought it was the most amusing thing in the world.

"Piss off, Avery!" Sirius glared at him.

Snape finally broke eye contact with me, looking down apologetically at Lily, giving me the sinking feeling that her 'trip' wasn't a result of a sudden bout of clumsiness by her but by a simple first year spell fired at her from behind. Lily didn't notice this though and he merely stepped round her, making no move to help her in anyway. Avery and Nott followed him. I swear I saw Nott make to spit at her as he walk passed but something in my eyes must have warned him that that wasn't a good idea if he wanted to carry on living.

"Are you okay?" I asked concernedly as Lily finally straightened up and swung her bag back onto her back.

"I'm fine James," She smiled gently. "I just get a little bit clumsy and trip over my own feet sometimes. Don't worry about it,"

If only I could believe that that was the case though. If only it was a simple case of clumsiness.


	4. Headsplitting Agony

Huge thanks to everyone who has left a comment or added this story to their favourites or to their story alerts. It means so much to me that people enjoy reading my story.

Hugs and Stuff

Katie

**Edited 25/1/2009: Okay, so I managed to persuade my friend to finally spare the time to beta read this chapter so with any look, any of the grammer/spelling mistakes should be gone by now. If you spot anymore in here, let me know and I'll remove them a.s.a.p.**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own or have any rights to anything mentioned, described and included in any Harry Potter related book/movie or product. This is just my interpretation of how Lily and James got together. All rights reserved to J.K. Rowling.

**Lily's P.O.V.**

My head was starting to pound heavily by the end of the day and all I wanted to do was go back to my dormitory and sleep until it ached a little less but unfortunately for me I couldn't. I had to make a start on the homework that had been set for us and later on go on patrol with one of the sixth year Slytherin prefects because his partner had been hit by someone's potion when it exploded and was still in the hospital wing whilst Madame Pomfrey worked on removing the electric blue colour from her skin.

Today had been one of those long days where everything that could seem to wrong did. I don't know how many times I've tripped today. I never normally trip but today it seemed like I couldn't walk down a corridor without tripping. My shirt was covered in ink blots from where my bottles of ink kept smashing on the floor. I started off by just using a quick charm to remove the stains but by the end of the day, I was just so annoyed by it that I didn't bother because I had the gut feeling I'd just end up tripping again and spilling more ink.

That was only a minor irritation though compared to everything else that happened. In Potions class, McNair had thought it would be funny to hide one of the key ingredients to my potion just moments before I was meant to add it to my cauldron. Of course, I didn't find it until after my potion was ruined and I had to start all over again. In Charms, I had been partnered with Broadmoor, a boy from Hufflepuff who was appallingly bad at Charms but an amazingly talented beater, who managed to transfigure my hair into jet black Hippogriff feathers instead of charming it to change colours in a class demonstration. Naturally this would have to happen during the one of the few times people were actually paying attention to the lecture. It took three loud cannon blasts from Flitwick's wands to shut them all up as I silently turned my hair back to normal, my face glowing bright red in embarrassment.

And these were just things in class. Out in the corridors between lessons, when I was busy tripping, I was having to deal with everyone who decided that the rule about no magic being used in the corridors didn't apply to them. Today it seemed like that was nearly every person in the school although that might just be my perception of it being exaggerated because of my poor mood.

I reached the Fat Lady, praying that she hadn't decided to go and visit one of the other paintings right now. I really didn't want to sit around in the corridor while I waited for her to come back. With the way my luck has been going today, the floor would probably disappear from under me and I'd end up crashing to the floor below me and breaking every bone in my body or something. Thankfully she was still there and she quickly swung open after I gave her the password and I was able to head in and collapse in one of the chairs next to one of the windows in a dark corner.

We had about an hour and a half until it was time for dinner which would give me enough time to make a good start on the revision questions we had to do on Everlasting Elixirs. It was fairly basic stuff that we had learnt last year and I had been reading up about them last weekend so I was fairly confident that I could answer the questions quickly without too much thought which would help not make my headache any worse.

I turned my chair round so that it faced the window, the high back blocking the view of me from anyone who was looking towards it. I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone right now. They would probably just want to tease me about my clumsiness today or the feathers incident and I just didn't want to deal with that. I just wanted to be left on my own for a while so I could do this work.

The common room quickly filled with other students as they came back from classes. Their voices buzzed loudly, filling the room with a jumble of sound. I wished there was some sort of volume button I could use to turn the volume down but unfortunately there wasn't much I could do about it. This was everyone's common room and I couldn't be selfish and demand that everyone be quiet just because I had a headache. That would just be highly unfair and I remembered how much it used to irritate me when some of prefects used to yell at us to be quiet when I was younger. Besides, it wasn't like the noise was distracting me or anything.

"Is everything okay, Lily?" I looked up into the twinkling brown eyes above me in shock as the soft, gentle voice broke into my concentration as I worked through my homework. "It sounds like you've had a rough day today,"

"It's not been one of my better days," I shrugged my shoulders wearily. Remus and I had become quite good friends over the past few years due to the amount of time we'd spent together on prefect patrols and being bored almost to death in the many pointless prefect meetings that past head boys and girls found necessary to arrange. I wouldn't say we were close friends or anything but we sometimes studied together or played chess when there was nothing else to do. He was extremely pale today and there were dark rings under his eyes as though he had been staying up late over the past week or so. I wanted to ask whether he was okay or not but I knew that he hated it when people fussed about him so I respected his right to privacy and left it well alone. "And it doesn't look like it's going to end any time soon," I joke as I wearily dragged my hand through my hair to pull it out of my eyes.

He sat down on the floor in front of me. "What's wrong?" He asked quietly, curiosity in his tone as well as genuine concern. Sometimes I think Remus sees himself as sort of like an older brother to me and that it's his job to keep an eye on me and make sure I'm okay.

"You mean you haven't already heard?" I quirked my eyebrows up sceptically. It is extremely hard to keep secrets in Hogwarts because there is nearly always someone around at all times, whether it's another person or one of the paintings spying on the students.

He chuckled. "You mean about the feathers and Potion incidents?" He chuckled mischievously. If it had been anyone else laughing about that then it would probably have triggered my temper and I would have ended up hexing them or something, but I knew that he wasn't laughing at me. I nodded as my face blushed bright red again. "I wasn't talking about that," He shrugged. "What I meant was why does this bad day of yours look like isn't going to end any time soon," He clarified.

"Just the usual," I sighed and stretched my arms up in the air, trying to ease out some of the stiffness that was threatening to form in my back and arms. "A mountain of homework, my head aching like hell and late night patrol duty tonight,"

"I thought you and James didn't have to patrol again until Thursday night," Remus frowned in confusion. I think Remus is the one that keeps track of things for James and Sirius so they always know when homework is due in, detentions, Quidditch practises and matches and patrol duties are for them because they can be hopelessly disorganised if you leave things like that to them. "Unless the patrol rota has changed and I haven't seen the new one," He frowned to himself.

"It's not with James, don't worry the rota hasn't changed," I reassured him with a grin. As James's best friend he would be one of the first to know if the rota changed because that was one of the things that James insisted on being allowed to draw up on his own. I had a sneaking suspicion that Sirius helped him with that job so that they could plan the best times to sneak out to pull their notorious pranks that were designed to cause maximum chaos the next day but I figured that at least he was making the effort to take on some of the responsibilities of the head boy and I was giving him the benefit of the doubt about this. "One of the Slytherin prefects is stuck in the hospital wing due to an accident in her potions classes and someone needs to take her place on patrols,"

Worry entered Remus's eyes at this. "Couldn't you have gotten someone else to do it instead of you?" He asked carefully.

"No one else wants to do any more patrols than they really have to," I sighed. "If I had bothered to ask any of them, they would have all said that they were too busy with homework or Quidditch practice or something like that. It's just easier to do the damn thing myself."

"I could do it for you," He offered quickly. "Or James would do it for you."

"Yeah, but it's Quidditch practice for the Gryffindor team tonight so James will be busy with that and I know you and Peter like to go and watch that," I shrugged. "Besides, I know James has grown up an awful lot over the past two years but he still loses his temper a lot if you provoke him so I don't think sending him out on patrol with Vaisey will be any good. I don't want Vaisey to end up in the Hospital Wing too just because he couldn't keep his mouth shut." I shrugged.

"And what about you ending up in the Hospital Wing because he's a Slytherin and extremely open and vocal about his opinion of Muggleborns," Remus pointed out to me with a glare. "Lily, you have to stop putting other people first all the time. You have to look after yourself and make sure you don't get hurt either,"

"Vaisey isn't dumb enough to do anything to the Head Girl while their on patrol," I scoffed although I confess that I'm more than a little bit nervous about going on patrol with him. It wouldn't be one of the best nights of my life, to say the least, but I was trying to be fair to him. He was chosen to be a prefect after all and there have never been any problems with him skiving of his duties or abusing his powers. Even before he was made a prefect he was never in any major trouble. "There's no need to worry about it. It will probably be one of the most boring patrols of my life, what with him not wanting to waste his breath talking to a mere Mudblood," I shrugged.

"Don't call yourself that!" Remus glared at me. "Don't you dare put yourself down like that! You have just as much right to be here as any of those pureblood snobs! You're better than every single one of them and you don't deserve to be called that!" He said hotly.

"It's just a word, Remus, it can't hurt me at all," I told him gently. I've never understood why all those purebloods and half bloods that don't have a problem with us Muggleborn witches and wizards get so upset by the name. They seem to get more upset about it than any Muggleborn I know. "I'm proud to be a Muggleborn and nothing anyone can say will ever stop that,"

"Yeah but you shouldn't use that word," He argued stubbornly. "That word shouldn't even exist. It wouldn't if we all lived in a world where things like that didn't make even the slightest bit of difference to anyone."

"But we don't live in an ideal world," I said firmly, sighing as I finished the answers to the second question and moved onto the next one. "How are things in your world?" I asked politely, indicating the last topic of conversation was closed. I wasn't about to argue over who would do the patrols.

"Things are going fine," He chuckled. "Although apparently hell froze over in Arithmancy and I totally missed it," He said teasingly. I frowned in confusion, not knowing what on earth he was talking about.

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking up from my parchment. "Nothing out of the ordinary happened. It was just another boring lecture on Pythagorean Theory. Nothing really extraordinary about it," I told him, wondering what on earth he was on about.

"Apart from the fact that you agreed to go on a date with James," He grinned teasingly. "Legend has always had it that that would never happen until Hell froze over," He told mischievously.

"Now that sounds like something Sirius Black would say," I glared at him. He nodded, confirming my theory that that was the source of the so-called legend. "And besides, I haven't agreed to go out on a date with him," I said confusedly and defensively. Why was it that everyone seemed to think that James and I are meant to be together? He's a great guy but we just wouldn't work well as a couple. He's too free spirited and wild and I would just end up dragging him down with my more cautious nature.

"That's not what Sirius says," Remus said craftily, clearly trying to dig for more details. "He says you agreed to meet James at The Three Broomsticks during the next Hogsmeade trip. That sounds like a date to me and every other person in this school." He pointed out.

"And what did James say about this so called 'date'?" I asked curiously, not ready to point out just why exactly it wasn't a date until I'd heard what James had had to say. I don't want to hurt his feelings or let him down in anyway.

"Just that it was no big deal," Remus shrugged. "We figure that's just him trying to play down the importance of it though,"

That surprised me. I thought at least that he would have bragged about it to his own friends. They never seem to keep any secrets from each other. The level of trust that they have with each other is enviable. I wish I had someone like that who I could trust implicitly with absolutely anything but I find it difficult to make close friends with people and those that I used to be friends with have become more and more distant over the past few years as Voldemort has become more and more powerful. I don't blame them for it though, these days it's dangerous to be seen associating with Muggleborns and they have their families to think about. I'd probably do the same in their position to keep my parents and Petunia safe, even though I would hate myself for doing it.

"And do you know the details?" I asked calmly.

"Not really," He admitted sheepishly.

"Then how can you say for certain that it's a date?" I pointed out, raising my eyebrows.

"Because you've never willingly spent time with James at all," He grinned mischievously. "You always used to avoid him like the plague when possible,"

"Only because he used to embarrass me in front of the whole school by asking me out or hexing my best friend!" I defended myself, feeling a bit guilty that Remus had seen it as me deliberately avoiding James, even if that was the case. "And what about Head duties? I spend time with him for those." I pointed out smugly.

"And that's only because you have to," He pointed out infuriatingly. "You would have to spend time with any boy who was made head boy so that argument doesn't really work,"

I sighed. This is one of the problems with trying to argue or debate with Remus because he always seems to have some sort of response to anything and always has to have to last word. "That doesn't change anything! It's not a date!" I glared at him.

"How is it not a date?" He questioned calmly. He could see that I wasn't as calm as I liked to be. Remus, as well as all his other friends, is one of the few people that can get me riled up and irritated about things. He can help bring out the best in people and is very quiet and studious but I never underestimated him. He doesn't hang around with James and Sirius for nothing. He has a mischievous streak a mile wide and he loves causing trouble just as much as they do.

"Do you take Sirius, James and Peter with you on all of your dates?" I asked him carefully, sure he wouldn't be able to argue his way out of this one.

"No, they'd just embarrass the hell out of me if I did that," Remus said, a confused expression on his face. "Not that I've been out with many girls in my time," He pointed out. "But what does that have to do with it?"

"It has everything to do with it." I pointed out with a victorious grin. "I agreed to meet up with James and you, Sirius and Peter in The Three Broomsticks next Hogsmeade visit, not James on his own. For all you know I might have some deep feelings for you, Sirius or Peter," I pointed out cheekily.

He blushed at this. "Good point," He acknowledged with a nod of his head. "But it still means your willingly spending time with outside of lessons and head duties, which, would lead me to conclude that you are softening in your feelings towards my best friend and instead of hating him, maybe even starting to like him," Arguing with Remus is like playing chess, just when you think you've won the game, your opponent makes a move that you don't expect and you have to start rethinking all your plans and strategies.

"I never hated him!" Remus raised his eyebrows sceptically at this. "I never hated him! I don't hate anyone because in order to hate someone they have to be worth caring about in the first place and most of the people I don't like just aren't worth wasting the effort." I defended myself.

"Fine, let's just say you strongly disliked him then," Remus altered his phrasing. All this arguing wasn't helping my headache much and it was starting to pound more than normal. I thought about taking a trip to the hospital wing and asking Madame Pomfrey for one of her potions to help me out but then she would probably make me stay in the Hospital Wing all night and then I would miss dinner, miss the patrol and fall behind on my homework. I wish I'd remembered to bring some paracetomol with me when I was packing my trunk at the end of the summer holidays but it had completely slipped my mind.

"I didn't strongly dislike him," I sighed. "There is a lot of good in James that cannot be denied such as his obvious intelligence, his loyalty to his friends and how passionate and hardworking he is at the things that he likes." I confessed, not wanting to be seen as someone who hated or disliked someone so much that I couldn't acknowledge any of the good traits in their personality.

"And yet before this year, the most you ever spoke to him was to yell at him for how he acted to other people," Remus pointed out.

"That's because he was always so cruel whenever he was around me," I pointed out. "He was always hexing and bullying Sev who was my best friend! Are you going to condemn me for standing by my best friend and being loyal to him, no matter what house that friend was in because if you are then you're a bloody hypocrite! James was unjustifiably cruel and someone needed to stand up to him. Sure he could be nice to the people he liked but you can always tell what a man is really like by the way he treats those people he considers to be his inferiors. And quite frankly, the way he treated Severus was just as bad as any Slytherin," I defended myself vehemently.

One thing that used to annoy me in the past was people who used to come up to me in the corridors and tell me that just because James had a crush on me, that I should overlook the fact that he could be just as cruel as some Slytherins sometimes and go easy on him, just because he was James Potter. I just couldn't do that. Names meant nothing to me and if he was trying to bully my friend, I wasn't going to stand by and let him. If he hadn't of been a bully towards my best friend, if he had come up to me and spoken to me like a normal human being and not felt the need to show off I would have been friendlier with him. He just never did.

"I suppose so," Remus agreed with me although I didn't really believe him. Remus is extremely loyal to his friends and will cut them more than a little bit of slack if they step out of line, even if he knows what they're doing is wrong. "Is that why you're now being friendly for him, because he's stopped being a idiot around you?"

"Not just to me but to everyone around him as well," I nodded in agreement. "I've been waiting for years for him to grow up a little bit and leave some of the negative points of him behind in the past and now he has done I can talk to him as someone who deserves my respect," It was hard to explain to him.

"He'd never believe me if I told him all this," Remus chuckled to himself.

"He probably wouldn't," I agreed weakly as I placed my quill down on my parchment and screwed the lid back onto the lid of my ink. It was no use, my head was aching too much for me to be able to focus on my work.

"Who probably wouldn't what?" James said creeping up behind and making me jump. I let out a squeal in shock which quickly turned into a groan as the high pitched sound hurt my head. I flinched from the pain.

"Nothing," I groaned as I placed my head in my hands, covering my eyes, and leant back into my seat.

There was a pause where I guessed that James and Remus were doing that annoying male telepathic talking thing that I've seen them do before I could hear James's voice directly next to my ear. "Lily? Are you okay?" He asked softly, keeping his voice quiet as though not to trigger anymore pain behind my eyes.

"Not really," I muttered under my breath. "Just feel like someone has hit a stray bludger through the middle of my head," I moaned a little.

He put his arm around me and hugged me gently. I would have hugged him back but my hands were too busy holding onto my head because the pain was getting so bad it felt like my head might just crack into tiny pieces if I didn't. "Ouch, that sounds painful," He said softly, stroking my hair gently. I won't lie, it felt good to have him stroke my hair but I was in too much pain to fully appreciate it.

"Well duh," I muttered sarcastically but in a much gentler tone than I was used to giving James when I was being sarcastic to him.

"So why don't you go and see Poppy?" He asked gently. "She's bound to have a potion that will make the pain go away in a heartbeat or at least a Sleeping Draught so that you just sleep until the pain goes away,"

"I can't," I moaned. "I have to do patrols tonight," I whimpered softly.

"But we don't have patrols again until Thursday," James said confusedly. "You can't be on patrol because I wrote the patrol schedule out and I know that it's the Slytherin sixth years, Hufflepuff seventh years and Ravenclaw fifth years tonight,"

"One of the Slytherin prefects had an accident in Potions and someone needs to cover her shift," Remus explained calmly.

"So I'll cover it," James shrugged.

"You've got Quidditch practise tonight, James," I sighed.

"Not all night I don't," James shrugged. "Besides, as captain of the team I'll just make practise shorter tonight. It's no big deal,"

"You can't do that," I moaned.

"You're in no fit state to patrol tonight, Lily," He said firmly in a tone that meant he would stubbornly stand by this declaration no matter how much I tried to argue with it. "You work too hard as it is and if you don't slow down once in a while or you'll make yourself ill,"

"I'll be fine," I whispered unconvincingly. "It's only a headache, it will probably be gone by then. Besides, you'll be all tired and sweaty from Quidditch, you won't want to patrol like that," I pointed out.

"I don't mind," He said firmly. "It's only a Slytherin I'll be patrolling with. It's not like I want to impress them or anything. Just let us take you to the Hospital Wing, Lily," He pleaded with me.

"No James," I told him weakly, but just as firmly. "It's Vaisey and if I let you go on patrol with him, you know he'll end up in the Hospital Wing,"

"Better him in the Hospital Wing than you!" James snorted in annoyance. "Vaisey wouldn't dare try anything with me,"

"And he wouldn't try anything with Lily, either, James," Remus chose this moment to enter the conversation. I peeped around my hands and smiled gratefully at him, a little surprised that he hadn't sided with James on this one.

"But Lily is in no fit state to do this patrol!" James said irritably. I think he had counted on Remus siding with him or something. "So as Head Boy, I'll have to do it for her,"

"Not if I do the patrol, James," He volunteered. "It's too cold outside for me to want to watch you practise Quidditch for three hours tonight and you know you always let your practises overrun a little because you lose track of the time,"

"But Vaisey is a prejudiced git," James said hotly.

"So he might take offense that I'm a half blood," Remus shrugged. "It's no big deal. Come on; let's get Lily to the hospital wing. She's looking extremely pale," He said softly.

"You're right," James sighed, although he didn't sound happy about that. He looped his arm gently around my waist, ignoring my moans, and guided me to my feet. "The minute that headache of yours is gone, you'll be thanking us for making you go and see Pomfrey," He teased me gently as he pulled me towards the portrait hole. This was one of the things I'd only really noticed about James recently. He can be incredibly gentle. I don't know why that knowledge made me feel warm inside but it just did. It just felt right, unquestionably right. It was just one of those things that I could just accept as being right until something else happened to explain it all.

"But James, she'll keep me there all night," I told him quietly. "I'll fall behind with my homework if she does that,"

"Good," Remus appeared in front of us and swung the portrait open so that we could step out, James helping me all the way to make sure that I didn't trip. Normally I would have pushed him away at that point and done it myself because I don't need someone being there to make sure I don't fall, but after all the trips and stumbles today, it was probably best just to let him lead the way. Besides, by letting him lead the way, I could close my eyes to block out the light that was starting to pain them.

"That's not good," I groaned at Remus. "I can't afford to lose a night of school work, you know how heavy our work load is this year,"

"Yes you can," James joined in at this point. "You need to take a night off, once in a while and relax, Lily. And if need be, you can get all the information you need for any of the essays we've got from one of ours so long as you promise faithfully not to copy off one of ours," James joked gently with me.

"Says the boy who copied off most of my essays for the first four years," Remus grumbled under his breath.

"That is beside the point, Remus," James told him with a laugh. I like James's laugh. It's so open and natural that you know instantly that he isn't faking it. Over the past few years, I've noticed that a lot of people's laughs have become more forced and more brittle as though they are putting on an act of carrying on with everyday life, even as the War outside is going from bad to worse. Somehow, I think that James could find a silver lining in almost anything. People rely on his and Sirius's pranks at the moment to distract them from the darkness outside the Hogwart's walls, from the danger that all of us will face.

I am glad that James has grown up a lot and matured over the last few years, but like Emmeline, I'm also glad that he hasn't lost that boyish sense of humour that keeps people laughing, even at times like this. I would hate for him to lose that humour, that sense of innocence and the ability to trust the people he cares about unconditionally. We need people like that, desperately need them to keep us going.

I don't know what would happen if we didn't have people like that, people who believed that eventually good will prevail over evil.

Actually, that is a lie.

I do know what would happen if we didn't have people like James Potter.

We'd lose all hope and the will to keep on fighting.

We'd be sucked under by the iron grip of what we know is wrong.

We'd lose our humanity and become that which we hate.

We'd lose the war.


	5. Out of the Blue

I'm really sorry that chapters 4 and 5 haven't been beta read yet to get rid of all the mistakes. My old beta is too busy to read through my stories now and I'm in the process of looking for a new beta reader. As soon as I've found one I'll try and get the corrected chapters posted as soon as possible.

Thank you to all the people who have been reading my story, to those who have commented and to those who have added it to their favourites or alerts. It means a lot to me. Special thanks to Queen Moanna of the Underworld for your feedback because it helps to encourage me to keep writing, especially when I feel a bit discouraged by my family and friend's reactions to my writing.

Hugs and stuff

Katie

P.S. sorry this chapter is so long, I just couldn't reach the point where I wanted to end the chapter in any fewer words…

**Edited 25/1/2009: Okay, so I managed to persuade my friend to finally spare the time to beta read this chapter so with any look, any of the grammer/spelling mistakes should be gone by now. If you spot anymore in here, let me know and I'll correct them a.s.a.p.**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own or have any rights to anything mentioned, described and included in any Harry Potter related book/movie or product. This is just my interpretation of how Lily and James got together. All rights reserved to J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter 5**

**James's P.O.V.**

I've noticed in life that sometimes, when you need help the most, help will come from the most unexpected places. People often underestimate Peter and wonder why on earth we befriended him in the first year because it was quickly obvious that he wasn't a massively, naturally talented wizard like perhaps Sirius and I but neither was he naturally a hard grafter like Remus who works his pants off to get some of the highest marks in the years. Peter is a strong all rounder, good at every subject but not amazing at any of them. Peter's strength lies in his loyalty to his friends because he's never had a bad word to say about any of us, even though sometimes Sirius can tease him quite mercilessly and Remus sometimes doesn't have the patience to put up with some of Peter's occasional struggles with some of our classes.

He's not the most extrovert of our group and sometimes people's eyes seem to just pass over him as though he isn't there if me or Sirius aren't there and because of this he often overhears things that the rest of us wouldn't because people are more guarded around us. It's this skill of his that has provided us with some of the best opportunities to cause maximum mayhem in the past and also to find the ways to get us out of trouble on the rare occasions the Slytherins actually come up with a plan to try and get us expelled.

I'd been lying on my bed after Quidditch practice, idly reading my Transfiguration textbook as I tried to decide whether I could be bothered to make a start on the homework now or whether I should wait until Sirius gets back from whatever he is up to and for Remus to get back from his unscheduled patrol duty and do it with them when we could laugh and joke about it as we did it, when Peter came rushing in looking flustered. I was pretty sure, without even checking the Marauder's Map, he had been down in either the Library, working on one of the many essays that we've been set this week or in the kitchen, munching away on an early supper because let's face it, boys our age can never have too much to eat, either of which would have meant that normally he wouldn't have come back up to the dorms for at least another three quarters of an hour.

"Prongs!" He called out to me as he dashed into the room, skidding to a halt in front of my bed. "You'll never guess what I've heard," He told me excitedly, his watery blue eyes glittering.

"You finally got round to hexing Filch's cat into oblivion? A huge black hole randomly appeared in the middle of the Slytherin common room and sucked the whole foul, lot of them into it never to been seen again?" I suggested dryly. How on earth was I meant to guess what had got Peter so excited? This was Hogwarts and anything could have happened.

He glared at me. "Be serious, James," He told me sternly and for a moment I thought that he sounded eerily like Remus does when someone is annoying him while he's trying to do his homework or read on of his many thick books. "This is important,"

"Well then why don't you just tell me what it is then?" I asked calmly. Unluckily for Peter that tone never really works on me when Remus uses it so someone trying to copy it will have no luck making it have any effect on me. "Why try and make me guess what's happened when you know as well as I do that there are million things that could have happened to get you so excited,"

"True," Peter admitted unwillingly.

"So are you going to tell me what happened?" I asked curiously, seriously wanting to know whatever it is that Peter had to tell me.

"Well I was walking back from the kitchen down in the dungeons to see if Slughorn was in his office so I could get some help off him with that essay we have to write for Monday," He started slowly, quickly justifying his reasons for being down in that area of the castle, before spilling the beans on what has happened. Peter tends to do that a lot, constantly feels the needs to justify his actions to us as though he thinks we'll think the worse of him or judge him some how for it. I wish he would have a little more confidence in himself to know that he doesn't need to justify every little thing he does to his friends. "And I was just walking past that abandoned class room just further down from the entrance to their common room when I overheard them talking,"

Trust Peter to miss out the important details in that sentence. I could have done without the exact location of where he overheard whatever it was but it would be more useful for me to know who had been involved in the conversation. "Heard who talking?" I prompted him, knowing that if I didn't prompt him for that detail he might forget it.

"Nott, Avery and a couple of the younger years, can't remember their names," He shrugged. "It seemed like they were giving orders out to the other kids or something. I peeked in through the doorway and watched them as they ranted on and on,"

"So," I shrugged. "That's just the way they do things in Slytherin house. It wouldn't be the first time one of us have heard them having on of those little pureblood gatherings." I shrugged, wondering if this was Peter making a mountain out of a molehill. He's normally quite reliable with some of the stuff he overhears, but just occasionally he does make some things out to be more important than they actually are.

"But then we never heard them outright threatening anyone," Peter shrugged. "All those times they just tended to rant and rave about hexing any Muggleborn they liked. This time it was all aimed at one of them in particular,"

"Who is it they're targeting?" I demanded, feeling sorry for whoever it was that the Slytherins had decided to target. Me and Sirius would go out to make sure that the Slytherins completely and utterly failed in whatever it was that they were planning but I just hate the fact that this kind of prejudice exists in our world and is considered acceptable by some people. "I don't care if the person they pick is an irritating, pompous little git like Lockhart, I swear I won't let the Slytherins get anywhere near them without being hexed within an inch of their lives," I swore angrily.

"I don't know," Peter said unhappily. "They never mentioned who it was by name, just that it was someone who before now they'd been warned that if they harmed so much as a hair on her head, all hell would be let loose on them. That they could do what they wanted now so long as it wasn't anything that would get them expelled," He confessed shakily.

"Since when did Avery or Nott worry about being expelled? Their parents have so much influence with the Ministry that no matter what they did, the most they would ever get is a week suspension," I grouched unhappily. At home last summer, I'd overheard my Dad moaning about how much influence these old, openly pureblood obsessed families were gaining within the Ministry. He was worried that pretty soon, there would be no one left working there with any political clout that would support Muggleborn witches and wizards. "And besides, I thought all Muggleborns were all equally despised and it was pretty much open season on all of them," I said thoughtfully.

"Apparently not," Peter shrugged. "One of the younger years was grumbling about how it was about time they were allowed to attack this person, that she had been asking for this for ages and he would be only too glad to put the 'foul Mudblood bitch' in her place, once and for all," He said the last bit quietly so that I had to strain to hear the insults that had been poured out by some malicious, cowardly poisonous tongue because Peter knew what this would do to my temper.

He was right to be cautious. The person who they were threatening to harm was a girl and in my moral code of ethics, it is flat out wrong for a man to raise their wand and attack a woman at all like that. It is just wrong to try and hurt a woman in anyway like that. When we targeted the Slytherins in our pranks, apart from changing the colour of their hair or harmless things like that, we never directly targeted the Slytherin girls, even the ones like Bellatrix Black, a malicious, crazy cousin of Sirius who was up to her eyeballs in the dark arts who left school two years ago and who had never missed a chance to attack any Mudblood who so much as even breathed wrong near her.

I had to grab hold of one of the posters on my bed so tight that the knuckles on my hands went white to stop myself from hauling myself to my feet, heading down to the dungeons and hexing every Slytherin male I met senseless. Some people just shouldn't be allowed to live if they are going to deliberately treat certain people like animals just because they have had a different upbringing from them.

"Are you sure they never mentioned any names at all?" I asked him through clenched teeth, rage starting to burn in my veins. Peter shook his head and took a step back from me nervously. "No other clues as to who it might be?" I demanded knowing that there were quite a few Muggleborns in fifth, sixth and seventh year. I systematically ruled any Muggleborns who were in the first four years off the list on the grounds that none of them could have done anything to upset Avery, Nott and their cronies. We couldn't run around keeping an eye out on all Muggleborns at once because there were only four of us against the whole of the Slytherin house. The odds just weren't in our favour unless we could narrow the list down to one or a couple of people.

"Only that it's a girl that they're targeting," Peter shrugged. "Probably someone who was friends with or had some close connection with someone in Slytherin who has enough power that he can effectively warn the entire house to leave that girl alone and be obeyed by every single one of them,"

"Anything else?" I prompted, watching his face wrinkle up in thought as he tried to remember any other important detail that might help us.

"Well I reckon she must be quite popular if they're so keen to make an example of her. I mean they wouldn't just target anybody, would they?" Peter considered carefully. "If they're trying to prove some kind of a point then they have to chose someone who everybody knows and will show an interest in because otherwise they'd just be wasting their time,"

"Wasting whose time?" A voice in the doorway made me jump. I'd been so engrossed in my conversation with Pete that I'd completely zoned out the rest of the world, which was kind of surprising when you considered the amount of noise that was echoing up the stairway from the common room. Heaven only knows what is going on down there and I was too lazy to go and check. If Lily had been down there now trying to work on her homework, her poor head would probably be in agony right now. "Are you discussing things that might be considered as Marauder business without the presence of half this prestigious group's members?"

"Probably," I shrugged. "But I was too lazy to come and look for you and Remus so that you could both listen to what Peter had to say so I figured we'd just start without you. After all, the most important member was here," I joked with him.

Sirius's eyes narrowed slightly. "Low blow, Prongs. Very low blow," He told me mockingly.

"What can I say?" I shrugged again, going for nonchalance as I subtly reached out to try and grab my want without Sirius noticing. We've been in these situations before and normally they end up with one of us hanging from the ceiling or twitching around on the floor like a rabbit or something. "The truth hurts," I told him. Pete sniggered at this but muffled it as a cough when Sirius turned to look at him, raising one of his eyebrows as if to say what on earth do you think you're laughing at?

"The truth, eh?" Sirius turned back to look at me. "Sounds more like the inane babbling of that delusional mind of yours, Prongs," He strode across the room to his bed, pulling his robes off and dumping them on the floor before collapsing onto his mattress, turning to that he could sprawl across its length while still facing Peter and me.

"Maybe," I shrugged with a forced chuckle as my dark mood, which had temporarily disappeared when Sirius had arrived back but had now reappeared full force as a nagging, disturbing thought entered my mind.

"Okay, Prongs, spill the beans. What's troubling that little mind of yours now?" He demanded, wanting to be let in on whatever was pissing me off.

"The Slytherins are planning something big against one of the Muggleborns," I explained shortly, thinking to myself that when you put it like that, my worries and anger seemed like a bit of an overreaction. They were, after all, just doing what came best to the sneaky, sly little brains.

Sirius must have agreed with that. "So?" He said slowly as though he was thinking through my words looking for some deeper meaning or hidden message that would explain my bad mood. "What's so new about that? We'll just lie in wait for one of them to make a move, completely sabotage their plans, get them into as much trouble as we possibly can and then go back to pulling pranks against them. It's no big deal,"

"It is if the person they've suddenly decided to target is Lily," Peter muttered under his breathe, echoing my thoughts.

"What was that, Peter? Can you repeat that a little louder?" Sirius told him imperiously. "I didn't quite catch that,"

"It is a big deal if the person that they've suddenly decided to target is Lily Evans," Peter repeated much louder in an exasperated tone of voice. He hates having to repeat himself to people, even if this time it was sort of his fault for talking so quietly.

"Why the hell would they suddenly target Lily Evans?" Sirius snorted in disbelief at this. "Anyone who touches her faces being hexed within an inch of their lives. No one in that house is stupid enough to do that," He said seriously as he dropped this huge bombshell into the conversation.

"How the hell do you know that?" I demanded off him, struggling to come to terms with what Sirius had said. Why on earth would someone in Slytherin make a threat like that? She's only a scummy Muggleborn in their eyes and as such should be as much as a target for their abuse as any other Muggleborn in the school.

"Overheard my darling little brother moaning about how much he'd like to transfigure her into the hag he thought she always wanted to be for putting him detention for being out of bounds at the end of his first year to one of his little cronies during the summer break," shrugged as a glint of malicious pleasure appeared in his eyes. "Apparently he had to go into the Forest and almost got eaten alive by a bunch of giant spiders or something. Hagrid said he wet himself and dear old Regulus wanted his revenge for that humiliation,"

"What a pansy," Peter snickered at this. I had to bite back a laugh at the thought of Sirius's little brother being chased out the Forest by some spiders.

"Who on earth would make a rule like that though?" I asked Sirius, still amazed that such a weird thing would have existed. It just went against all the laws of nature. It would be like the lion suddenly stopping hunting altogether and becoming a vegetarian or Snivellus and I becoming best friends me naming my first born child after him. That should be the kind of thing that will never, ever, ever happen.

"Isn't it obvious?" Sirius asked sarcastically. "Who is the one Slytherin in this school who was close if not best friends with Lily Evans for the best part of five years at the very least and who has always since he first stepped foot on the Hogwarts Express known more about dark magic, hexes, curses and spells than any other kid in the history of the school?"

It was obvious when he put it like that but I still couldn't believe it. "Snivellus?" I guessed, the shock plain in my voice.

"Right in one, Prongs," Sirius laughed sarcastically.

"But why the hell would he do something like that?" I demanded.

"For someone who is normally considered to be an extremely intelligent and bright, I have to say you seem to completely lose any trace of that intelligence whenever Lily Evans enters the equation." Sirius started laughing and Peter joined in with him.

I glared at them for laughing at this. "I do not!" I defended myself vehemently. "Just because I haven't had the best history with her doesn't mean…" I started but Sirius quickly interrupted me.

"Prongs, you completely do," Sirius managed to stop laughing to say this. "He was her best friend for ages, of course he wouldn't let any of the other Slytherins have a go at her for any reason. And you were the one that worked out that he had a crush on her all these years. It wouldn't make sense for him to let them do that to her if he loves her."

"True," I scowled blackly at the reminder that Snivellus had been friends with Lily for all those years when I would have done anything to have been friends with her and have her laugh at my jokes and stories. "But why would he suddenly change his mind and let them have free reign. I mean it's pretty obvious he still adores her," I pointed out logically, determined to prove that my intelligence didn't disappear when I talked about or even saw Lily.

"Maybe he's decided it's a lost cause," Peter shrugged. "I mean it's pretty obvious to anyone with eyes that the two of you have grown closer together now,"

"And for all he knows it could be just a matter of time before you two start dating," Sirius pointed out lazily. "I mean she has agreed to go on a date with you,"

"It's not a date!" I glared at him. "I don't take you guys with me on my dates and she only agreed to come to The Three Broomsticks with me because you, Pete and Moony will be there," I pointed out smugly. I was trying to downplay this meeting we'd planned as much as possible, not wanting to get my hopes up just for it for them to just be dashed because Lily only looked at me as a friend. I don't think I could bear that rejection.

For the second time tonight I almost jumped in shock as someone else appeared in our doorway and spoke. "You know that's just what she said earlier," Moony grinned from the doorway. My observational skills must clearly be going if I don't notice people coming towards the doorway. Maybe I should booby trap one of the steps leading up to our dormitory so that whenever someone tries to get up to our dorm it would set off an alarm so they could never surprise me. It would work after all, because our dorm is right at the top of the tower so none of the lower year guys could set it off.

"See!" I grinned in thanks for the support at Moony before turning back to smirk at Sirius triumphantly at the fact that my argument had been backed up by Lily herself. "It's not a date! Even Lily agrees with me,"

"That's just a technicality," Sirius shrugged.

"Great minds do think alike, after all." Peter said sarcastically. I glared at him.

"Or fools seldom differ," Moony added in. I spun and glared at him. He was meant to be on my side while the other two were too busy making fun off me.

"Oi! Lily isn't a fool!" I defended her hotly. "She's the smartest, prettiest girl that Hogwarts has ever seen,"

"Notice how he didn't try to claim that he isn't a fool," Moony laughed. "Good to see you've got your priorities in the right order there." I frowned in confusion. What did he mean by that? Of course Lily comes before me. I love her so much that how could I possibly sit by and let them anyone mock her like that, whether they're my worst enemy or best friends. It's just something as natural as breathing, I don't even think about it now.

While I was trying to work out what he meant by that, Sirius decided to try and turn the conversation back to the original topic of conversation before any arguments broke out. If its one thing Sirius hates doing, it's arguing or fighting with his friends. He does enough fighting with his parents whenever he sees them to want to do any more arguing with the people he actually cares about than he really, really has to. "Besides, as soon as word gets round the rest of the kids, and you know it will, everyone else will think that it's a date, whether the whole of the Chudley Cannon's team is there or not!" Sirius pointed out patiently. "You know the gossipers will twist anything to make it more interesting and Snape is probably going to hear it from one of them,"

"But that doesn't stop the fact that he adores Lily," I pointed out desperately. I really didn't want it to be Lily that was targeted by all the Slytherins. None of them would get near here if it was her they were after because I'd hurt anyone who tried to hurt her but I hated the fact that people would be willing to hurt her in the first place. It just wasn't right for people to hate and malign a girl who's so honest, unselfish and gentle just because of her family background.

"James, after two years of her not speaking to him, I think Snivellus has finally got the message that she wants nothing to do with him," Remus stopped leaning against the doorpost at this moment and entered the room, collapsing on his bed with a tired sigh. "He was ever so leery about openly hanging around with some of the other dark arts obsessed kids when he was in the past because it upset Lily but now that she doesn't care two hoots what he does anymore it's okay for him to hang around with the crowd of people who accept him and look to him as a leader,"

"And look at the way that the war is going outside," Peter said solemnly. "We're losing the war and You-Know-Who is getting stronger and more demanding in what he expects his followers to do."

"So?" I said belligerently. "Voldemort has always hated Muggleborns, that's nothing new,"

"But we're going to be leaving school soon, Prongs, and leaving the protection of Hogwarts behind us," Sirius said calmly. "Snape can't have people thinking that he's soft and a Muggleborn lover, he'd get crucified by all the other Death Eaters and he's too much of a coward to want that to happen."

"And the easiest way to get rid of rumours like that would be for him to let the Slytherins know they can do as they please to Lily and not have any repercussion from him," Remus said logically. "If he's going to go to the devil, he might as well do it properly."

"Besides," Peter broke in at this point. "What better way to get his own back on you than by hurting the girl everybody knows you adore? It would be the perfect justice for him because Lily would never expect it and neither would you,"

"If he hurts her, I kill him!" I swore angrily to myself.

"I doubt he's planning to do the dirty work himself," Sirius said reassuringly. "He's not crazy enough that he would be able to hurt her himself. He'll get the other Slytherins to do it for him and it will be easy for us to stop them. They won't get anywhere near her while we're around, Prongs,"

"But we don't know they were talking about her!" I admit that I was grasping at straws at this point, desperately searching for another scenario so that Lily would still be safe from her old friend's housemates. "For all we know it could be some other Muggleborn girl."

"Like who, Prongs?" Sirius said irritably. "There is no other Muggleborn in the school that has ever been friends with Slytherin,"

"Apart from that Meadows girl in Ravenclaw," Pete said suddenly as if he'd only just remembered. "She dated Nott for a few months last year when he thought she was related to Dorcas Meadowes's family."

"Oh for Pete's sake," Sirius groaned and jumped to his feet. "Instead of standing around here, going round in circles, why don't we just go and ask one of them,"

"Somehow, I don't think the Slytherins are going to tell us what we want to know," Moony said dryly as he sat up, resigned to the fact that we'd probably all have to go with Sirius to make sure he didn't injure anybody too badly.

"Regulus will if we 'ask nicely'" Sirius said sarcastically using air quote marks to get his point across. "You do know the password to the Slytherin common room, right?" He asked me quickly, as he bent to root through his trunk, looking for the Marauders Map.

"Yeah," I shrugged. Lily and I were the ones that had to come up with the passwords for the Slytherin common room because if left to do it themselves they would come up with some pretty nasty things. "But we're not allowed in there, Sirius, I can't be caught doing anything like that now that I'm head boy,"

Sirius rolled his eyes as he straightened up, the map in his hands. "Stop worrying, Prongs, I'm not going to go storming in there, looking for him." He chuckled. "Why would I want to go into that damp, dump?" He demanded.

The others headed towards the door to the dorm and made their way down the stairs. I grabbed my invisibility cloak and stuffed it inside my robe. We didn't need it anymore to sneak around the castle when we had the Marauder's Map to warn us whenever a teacher or Filch was anywhere near but once we'd spoke to Sirius's little brother I wanted to sneak into the Hospital Wing to see Lily and I knew that that was one trip the others wouldn't want to come on with me.

I followed them out the room and down the stairs. "But why do you need the password then?" I demanded of Sirius.

"Because it's well past curfew now and I doubt the Slytherins are brave enough to be out this late," Sirius sighed as though this was something that was extremely obvious. "I'm just going to stand at the doorway and bellow for him until he shows up or someone drags him over,"

We were silent as we headed through the silent corridors. It was just like a habit we'd gotten into through spending years roaming around under the cloak when we didn't know who might be hiding around the corner, waiting to dock points off us or put us in the detention if they caught us and we just hadn't been able to break it.

I've always loved walking round Hogwarts at night. It all looks completely different at night when the halls are dark and empty. I suppose I've never really got over the childish thrill of breaking the rules for the first time and doing what I wanted to do. The first time we stayed out after curfew in my first year I nearly had a panic attack every time I heard something or saw something move out of the corner of my eyes. I was terrified I would get caught but it was one of those good kinds of terrified, like the ones you get when your diving 50 feet from the air in a Quidditch match as fast as you can go and you pull out of the dive just before you go crashing into the ground. The adrenaline rush is unbelievable, one of the reasons I've so repeatedly bent, broken and flouted the rules in all my times at Hogwarts.

The Slytherin common room is hidden by a wall, deep in the dungeons of the castle. It took us about twenty minutes to get there, never once seeing any sign of Filch or the teachers who by now, seemed to be all safely tucked away in their beds. I stood at the wall and whispered the password and watched the dungeon wall slide away. I was sort of curious to see what the Slytherin common room looked like inside because it was one of the few places I've never been in inside the whole castle. I was a bit disappointed to see that it looked pretty much like any other dungeon room I'd been in with a low ceiling, lots greenish lamps and sofas and plenty of skulls scattered around to add to the whole 'homely' effect, I thought to myself sarcastically.

"Oi! You there!" Sirius called to a small first year who was sat by the stone fire place, scribbling away on a piece of parchment. The kid looked up and almost wet himself in shock to see four Gryffindors stood at the entrance to his common room. "Go and get Regulus Black for me right now and tell him his brother wants to talk to him right now! I'll be waiting outside in the corridor and if he isn't out in five minutes I'll come in and get him myself!" Sirius threatened impatiently before turning his back and retreating back into the shadowy corridor. I watch the kid hurry off towards a pair of doors, almost completely shrouded in shadow at the far end of the room, almost tripping over his own feet as he hurried to do as Sirius demanded.

I turned and followed Sirius and the wall shut behind us, blocking our view of their common room. We waited in silence, none of us really having anything we wanted to say just for the sake of breaking the silence. It was just naturally understood that none of we were here to do something important, not to mess around, and that jokes and flippant comments would just be inappropriate. This just wasn't the time or the place for them.

Two minutes went by before the dungeon wall once more slid open and Regulus Black appeared in the gap. He stepped towards us and the wall swished shut again behind us. It's a little eerie looking at Regulus because he looks so much like Sirius that if it weren't for the sneer and the hard, cold eyes that Regulus always had when I was around, I would have found it almost impossible to tell the difference between the two. The only difference between them is the fact that Regulus is slightly shorter than Sirius and has a much slighter build, something that helps him when he plays seeker for the Slytherin Quidditch team. As much as it pains me to admit this, he's the only one of the Slytherin team with any real talent.

"Well, well, well," He drawled sarcastically at us as he walked over to us. "What do we have here? My darling, blood traitor brother and his pathetic bunch of friends,"

That was the wrong thing to say to Sirius, especially on a day when he's been banned from hexing or tormenting Snape at all. Sirius didn't bother replying to his younger brother's insults, instead his arms flashed out and grabbed the front of Regulus's robes before he lifted the boy up and slammed him against the wall. "Don't mess with me tonight, little brother, I'm really not in the best of moods,"

"Go to hell," Regulus spat in his face.

"I'm already there," Sirius spat back unconcernedly. "Now you're going to tell me what the hell you guys are planning towards Lily Evans and if you do it quickly enough, I might consider not hexing the crap out of you after enough,"

The sneer on Regulus's face intensified. "The Mudblood is finally open season!" He crowed happily. "We can do what we want and Snape won't do a thing to stop us!" His eyes lit up at this and I just wanted to punch him in the face for that.

"Well you tell all of your foul, pureblood friends that if any of you so much as even hurt a hair on her head, I'll make you regret the day you were even born!" I couldn't hang onto my temper at Regulus's confirmation of my darkest fears. I had to turn and walk away before I tried to strangle the boy with my bare hands, leaving the others to finish getting what they could out the slimy bastard.


	6. Was She Dreaming?

Hey there,

I have to admit this was an epic chapter for me to write. It's over 6,000 words and I've never written anything that long before. Huge thanks to Megin my beta reader who had to work on this in three parts because it was such a long chapter and for getting it done so that I could post it today. She's beta-ed about 15,000 word over the last two days, quite an epic feat I think.

I'd also like to thank the two people who left feedback on my last chapter, Queen Moanna of the Underworld and tinkerbell25285. Don't worry, I don't plan on giving up writing anytime soon. I find it too relaxing and fun for me to want to give it up anytime soon.

Thanks to all my readers and I hope you enjoy the next chapter.

Hugs and stuff

Katie

P.S. Please, if you are following this story, please just leave me a bit of feedback to tell me what you think of it, what things you think I could improve and what things you'd like to see me include, even if it's just one sentence, anonymous feedback.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own or have any rights to anything mentioned, described and included in any Harry Potter related book/movie or product. This is just my interpretation of how Lily and James got together. All rights reserved to J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter 6**

**Lily's P.O.V.**

Sometimes, when I'm lying in bed at night, I have moments when I don't quite know whether I'm awake or sleeping. Part of me thinks that I'm awake because I see the shadowy shapes of the posters at the foot of my bed and of those surrounding the beds of the other girl's beds in my dormitory but my brain is convinced that I'm asleep because my eyes feel so heavy and I can't move. My thoughts seem to whirl round in my head in a crazy, seething mass but the thoughts themselves make absolutely no sense which just adds to my brains confusion as to whether I'm awake or asleep because I know for a fact that when I'm awake, my thoughts would never be that random. If they were, I probably would have been locked up in a nice padded cell for my own safety and also the safety of every other human on the planet.

I hate those kinds of nights. They don't happen very often but often enough for them to annoy me. I never get enough sleep on those nights and always find it a struggle to stay awake the next day because my body tries to pull me into a nice, 'proper' sleep where it can gain some rest. I guess the tiredness is evidence that I wasn't completely half asleep. There is probably some scientific reason for nights like that, maybe I'm half asleep and half awake, I don't know. All I know is that I dread those nights like you wouldn't believe. The lack of control that I have over them scares me because of the fact that I can't seem to 'wake' myself up from them or just fall into a proper dreamless sleep.

Last night I think I had one of those nights and the shocking thing was that it didn't feel wrong or crazy, it just felt right. It didn't last all night, in fact it seemed like it was only an hour or so when I couldn't work out what was going on and then afterwards, when it was over, I was able to drift back into a deep sleep that I really didn't want to wake up from when morning came.

Madame Pomfrey, as I had predicted, had insisted on keeping me in the Hospital Wing overnight which meant that I wasn't able to do that prefect's patrol or any of my homework which I had, on the grounds that the headache had probably been caused by too much stress and not enough rest and relaxation. She had given me a potion to take the pain in my head away, stood and watched as I ate my way through a tray of food that she brought over to my bed after James and Remus had left to go and get their own dinner before they rushed off to Quidditch practice. After that she had given me a dreamless sleep draught that she insisted that I take then and there so that I could get at least ten hours sleep before class tomorrow.

Now I've taken the sleeping draught once before that night and I know that when you take it, you don't remember much happening after drinking it when you wake up. If you do dream then you certainly don't remember the dreams and it's almost impossible to be woken up by someone else unless the effects of the potion have completely worn off. The potion, as you might have guessed, does just exactly what its name suggests and that is why what happened last night is so surprising to me.

I don't remember much of what happened, it's all a bit hazy as though it was in fact just a dream but the feeling of safety and peace leaves me wishing in a way that it had been real, that besides the bizarreness of the whole incident it just felt right and natural as though this was the way the world would be if everyone got along and there was no fighting. Madame Pomfrey must have miscalculated the amount of potion I needed to help me sleep through the night or something and my body was busy trying to fight off the effects of the potion while trying not to completely wake up or something because that is the only explanation that I could come up with for what had happened.

In this dream, I swear James Potter came and sat by my bed for a while and just sat there silently as he stroked my hair. No one has ever really stroked my hair like that since my mother used to do it when I was ill as a little girl and I couldn't help but feel comforted and almost adored, I guess would be the word used to describe it, beyond anything in the world. He didn't say anything and seemed content to just sit there in silence.

Had I been more alert and conscious, I would probably have wondered what on earth he was doing sitting by my bed in the Hospital Wing long after Madame Pomfrey had closed it to any visitors and what must have been well after curfew but I was too much asleep for my brain to think logically about something like that. It might just have been my imagination if I really was asleep and dreaming or the way the shadows were falling on his face on the highly unlikely and improbable chance that I was awake, but it looked like the James was deep in thought as though something was troubling him. Part of me wanted to ask him what was wrong and I must have mumbled something incoherently because his hand froze in my hair and his gaze snapped to mine.

"Lily?" His voice whispered gently as he looked down on me. I moaned, wanting to feel his hand stroking my hair again. I sluggishly rolled onto my side so that I was facing him, snuggling my head deeper into gentle hand. "Lily, are you awake?" I nudged his hand again with my head and I think he got the message because he started stroking my hair again. I didn't make any other noises though, to content with the feeling of safety that was slowly sweeping over.

His other hand stretched out and touched my cheek softly, hesitantly at first as though scared I might wake up the minute his skin met mine, but quickly growing in confidence as he realized that I probably wouldn't wake up anytime soon. His finger gently traced my cheekbones, stroked softly over my lips and traced gently over the shape of my nose. It was a weird feeling to have his skin so close to mine, so sure and confident and yet so careful and gentle. It sent shivers down my spine and I swear my skin must have broken out with goose pimples. It felt so good, better than anything I've ever felt before, awake or sleeping.

I could feel myself drifting off to a deeper sleep as he sat there stroking me. My thoughts seemed to slow down and my body relaxed in a way it hasn't done for so long. It was like worries about the war going on outside the walls of Hogwarts and the stresses and strains of trying to prepare for both my NEWT exams and the responsibilities of being the Head Girl just didn't exist or were just trivial matters that didn't deserve me getting all stressed out and worried about.

"Lily?" James's voice suddenly broke through my attempts to drift off into a deeper sleep. If I had been fully awake I probably would have started grumbling at that point but I was too far out of it to do that. My brain was hanging onto what he was saying as much as it possibly could in its fuzzy, confused state. "Lily, I'm so sorry,"

In all my time at Hogwarts, I don't think I've ever heard James apologise for anything and known instinctively that he meant it with everything possible. It was hidden deep in his tone of voice but my groggy mind managed to catch onto that. He sounded so sad and tired that I wanted to reach out and stroke his hair and take it all away from him, so that he could be the happy, laughing prankster that everyone loved but my arms felt like lead and I just couldn't move them an inch. I settled for mumbling something incoherently and left it at that. James probably thought that I was talking in my sleep.

"I know he was your best friend and that once your really cared about him; and I know it's my fault that you're no longer his friend," James started slowly in that whispered voice that was so apologetic and sincere. "I just hated how you were friends with him and yet couldn't be anywhere near me without getting angry with me or into an argument about stupid little things and I just couldn't find the strength in me to resist taking my frustration out on him. I know it was wrong of me to target him, to be the bully you always said I was and I wish that I could go back and change every little thing I said or did to him if I thought it would change what he's planning to do," I could hear the guilt and shame in his voice. I wondered what on earth he was going on about and wished that I could wake up enough to answer but I was trapped in this half asleep, half awake state and I just couldn't do it. Waking up was just millimetres away from my grasp, it seemed, but my arm just couldn't stretch enough to grab it.

He fell silent again for a few moments. "I guess around you, I lose track of good sense and never learnt when to stop. I chose to fight him because I saw him as my rival for you but in the end I guess I've lost the fight and now you're going to pay the cost because I was a selfish bastard," There had been anger in his voice at that last bit and maybe a bit of self hatred. "I didn't mean to drag you into the middle of this; I never thought he would use you to hurt me. It seems so obvious to me now but I never in my wildest dreams thought he would try anything like this, not to you, not to someone he loves,"

I was still completely confused by this and was shocked when, almost from a distance as though I wasn't even in my own body, I felt him lift my hand up and kiss my fingers softly, gently and heartbreakingly tender. "I swear to you, Lily, I swear on my life and everything that I care about, that I won't let him touch you," He whispered into my fingers, his breath warm against my skin. He held it there for a while, occasionally kissing it again, gently, almost reverently as though I was the most valuable thing on the planet instead of just one insignificant girl.

After a while, he placed my hand gently back on the coverlet, gently smoothing my hand out of the fist that it had formed into so that my fingers lay relaxed and flat against the cover. He didn't stand up or make to leave though, reaching out to gently grab a strand of my hair, smoothing it gently between his fingers as he leant closer to me.

The next thing I knew, cool lips were gently kissing my cheek, so softly that I might just have imagined it. Something like that couldn't be real. Things like that only ever happen in Muggle films and fairytales, not in the harsh world of reality. My skin tingled from where the soft caress had touched it and the next thing I knew he kissed my lips softly.

"I love you, Lily, and I won't let anybody hurt you," He whispered so quietly that I almost didn't hear it, the deep well of emotion in his voice.

A clatter interrupted whatever else he tried to tell me and he seemed to just fade out of the dream, completely disappearing from where he had been before. It shocked me how much the mood of the dream changed when he disappeared, some of the feeling of peace and safety completely disappeared and I could no longer completely relax into my blankets. I lay there for a while, still trapped between being half awake and half asleep before my body surrendered to sleep and I fell once more into a dreamless sleep.

It had to have been a dream though; I can't believe that it was real. James was acting so far out of character, doing things and saying things that my logical mind just can't imagine him actually doing. There was enough detail and feelings in it for me to confuse it with reality but it was hazy enough and dreamlike enough for me to know that it must have been a dream. Guys just don't act like that outside dreams and stories, especially not teenage boys who are mostly driven by their hormones and whatever other immature urges drive them. It's a well known fact, after all, that boys don't mature as fast as girls, even in times of war, when the horrors of what we read in the newspapers slowly snatches away whatever childhood innocence still remains.

"Miss Evans!" A voice broke through my thoughts like a stone through a still pond, scattering ripples everywhere, dragging me back to reality. I turned my face from the window I had been gazing out of and turned towards Professor Flitwick, my charms teacher. He was obviously waiting for a reply to some question that I hadn't heard.

"I'm sorry Professor, could you repeat the question?" I asked quietly, feeling the gazes of everyone else in the class fix on me. My face started to burn and I blushed bright red. I've never been inattentive in class in all my time at Hogwarts, even in the most boring of lessons like History of Magic where everyone else used the boring lesson to catch up on missed sleep or to finish homework assignments as Binns droned on in the background.

"Are you feeling okay, Miss Evans?" Flitwich asked, concerned. "You were in the Hospital Wing last night, weren't you?" He was looking carefully at me as though trying to work out if I was going to pass out or be sick or something in his lesson.

"Yes sir," I admitted quietly, not wanting to go into any details. "But Madame Pomfrey said I was fine this morning and that I would be okay to go to class." I shrugged, trying not to make it seem like a big deal. The last thing I needed was for rumours flying round the school saying that I couldn't cope with all my workload and that I shouldn't be head girl. There were enough of those flying round at the moment spread by the some of the Slytherin girls who felt their own seventh year prefect should have got the job instead of me that I didn't need anymore.

"I don't think you are okay, Lily," Flitwick said gently. "I think you need to go back and see her, you're looking a bit pale." I like Professor Flitwick and his lessons. I seem to have a natural ability for charms that means a lot of what he teaches just comes naturally to me and when he sees that I've mastered something, he'll always push me to take it one step further but never onto something I'm not ready for. He knows what my limits are and doesn't try and force me beyond them unless it's for a really important, complex, advanced charm that he wants me to master because it might prove useful to me once I leave Hogwarts.

He was the one who in fifth year had decided that it was time that I learnt how to conjure up my own, corporal patronus, a defensive charm that creates a short of barrier that will drive away Dementors and Lethifolds. Many fully grown wizards cannot conjure an indistinct patronus, let alone a fully formed one because the concentration you need to focus on a single, happy memory that you need to create the spell while the Dementor is trying to suck it right out of you to feast on it, is immense. It took me months to learn how to do it and lots of private lessons after class before I finally managed to conjure mine.

Today I think he was lecturing to us about the Patronus Charm. I don't think he would be attempting to teach it to us because it was so advanced that a lot of people here would probably never be able to cast it and because he didn't have to time to spend lots of lessons teaching the rest of the group how to conjure it when we had more important spells to look at. After all, this was a charms lesson, not a Defence Against The Dark Arts class where it seemed more logical that this spell would be taught.

"I'm fine Professor, just a bit tired," I shrugged calmly. "Could you repeat the question please?" I asked politely, hoping that it was something obvious that I could answer easily.

"If you're sure?" He hesitated for a moment. I nodded and he decided to let the whole thing go. "What shape does a corporal Patronus shield take?" He repeated the question and I let my body relax from the tense, bolt up right position it had taken when I had first been shocked from my thoughts. I knew this, it was so obvious to me now.

"A fully formed, corporal Patronus will take the shape of an animal that holds some significance to the caster's personality," I recited quickly. "It's very rare for a person's patronus shape to change but there have been occasional recorded occurrences where a change in the caster's circumstances through the death of a loved one or through falling in love with another person will cause the patronus to change shape to mirror the personality of the other person," I said calmly.

"Excellent answer, Miss Evans," Flitwick beamed at me with a knowing twinkle in his eyes. No one else in my year knew that I could conjure up a patronus or even that I had taken lessons to learn how to do so. "10 points to Gryffindor,"

I let a small smile form on my face while inside I felt like a fraud for earning those points for Gryffindor when I already knew the answer, having been taught all this once before while none of the others in my class had had that same chance. I kept quiet about it and hoped that Black would break some rule that would result in those points being knocked off. I could very quickly earn them back in another lesson, maybe in Potions next lesson.

My conscience duly appeased, I turned my gaze back to the window, about to drift back off into my thoughts when a voice from behind me piped up. "They take the shape of a real animal?" Potter asked curiously behind me. I turned round in shock to see that he was sat there at the desk directly behind me, parchment out in front of him with what appeared to be lesson notes transcribed onto it. I had to clench my jaw to stop it from dropping. James rarely ever felt the need to take notes in class because he had such a formidable memory that he just managed to remember all the important details that weren't in a book like you wouldn't believe.

His face wore a serious expression as though he was nothing more than a conscientious student who was asking for clarification on a question but this close to him, I could see a twinkle burning deep in his hazel eyes that told me not everything was as it seemed.

I could feel more blood rushing to my cheeks as he met my curious, surprised gaze feeling extremely flustered and embarrassed to be so close to him after last night's dream. It just felt a little weird to be so close to the real James Potter when the dream version of him had made me feel so different than I'd ever felt in my entire life. He never normally sat this close to me in class, choosing instead to sit across on the other side of the room with Peter, Remus and Sirius. I wondered what on earth had made him move over to this side of the room when the rest of his friends were stubbornly sitting in their normal seats at the back of the classroom.

"No, it's more of a silvery, white form of the animal," I explained, ignoring the fact that the question was probably aimed at Professor Flitwick and answering it myself. "The incantation for the spell is Expect Patronus; Patronus meaning protector or guardian which reflects the spells role as a defensive shield charm and expecto comes from the latin word _exspecto_ which roughly translates to 'I await' or 'I wait for'. This means the charm roughly translates to 'I wait for a protector' and the animal shape of the corporal form of the spell matches some muggle religious beliefs that every person has a spirit animal guardian that looks after them and protects them," As I spoke, James bent his head and focused on his parchment as he quickly scribbled my words down onto it. I felt a little flattered that he would pay such close attention to my words.

"Excellent answer, Miss Evans," Professor Flitwick praised me. My second answer had contained information that I'd researched much later after I'd finished my lessons with him on trying to conjure my own patronus shield and I was able to take this praise without a sense of guilt. "Take another ten points for Gryffindor,"

"Thank you sir," My face broke into a small smile.

"So it's like a ghost?" Sirius asked from the other side of the room.

"No, it's like this," I sighed, picking my wand up off the desk and muttering the incantation under my breath, focusing on the lingering happy feeling that remained from last nights dream. I didn't know how to explain it in any other way so I figured the easiest way would be to conjure one up for him. A silver doe shot out of the end of my wand and fell to the floor in front of me.

The was a simultaneous gasp as everyone in the classroom strained to look at my patronus as it paced up and down in front of them, looking for a Dementor to chase away. Some even climbed to their feet in an attempt to get a closer look at it. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw James turn and stare at my patronus with a look of awe on his face and also what looked like to be a certain amount of satisfaction before he turned and grinned smugly at Black. I had no idea what the heck that was about.

As people slowly got over the shock of what I'd done, they started whispering to themselves, no doubt dissecting what I had done trying to work out how on earth I'd managed to learn how to do something so advanced. I felt a tinge of regret that I'd taken it upon myself to show Black what a patronus looks like. There was no doubt that Flitwick was just as capable of demonstrating the charm to the class, being the schools Charms professor and everything, so I had no idea what had motivated my sudden desire to show off what I could do. It had been a weird day so far and the only reason that I can think of for doing it was the fact that sometimes I get tired of having to hide all the advance charms that I can do from people to avoid being seen as a show off and for once I just wanted to be the one to do something that was openly amazing that other people could see.

Poor Professor Flitwick had to set off several firecrackers to quiet everyone down. I turned away from James to face the front of the class but could feel his gaze burning into my back. It made me feel uncomfortable.

"Thank you, Miss Evans, for that fantastic show of magic," Flitwick thanked me calmly and then just carried on with the lesson as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened and my gaze wandered back out towards the windows as my thoughts drifted away from the class and off into what happened last night.

That has to be one of my biggest failings in life, I tend to overanalyse every little thing in life, even though I'm pretty sure what had happened was just some silly little dream I had. I mean it would be incredibly awkward if James did still have feelings for me, I mean I look at him as my friend, someone I do patrol duty with him. If he did still have feelings for me I would always have to be careful what I do or say around him because I don't want to inadvertently give him the wrong impression. How awkward would it be if that happened and we still had to patrol together and work together with the prefect duties?

"Lily," An amused voice spoke in my ear and for the second time that day I was shocked back to reality. "The lessons over, Lily," Malcolm Clearwater, a Ravenclaw seventh year who I often worked with in Charms when we had to do group assignments or practice spells on each other in class said. He's quite a close friend of mine, we did date briefly in fourth year but quickly realised that we were better off being friends, especially when James Potter suddenly realised he had a crush on me and started discouraging any guys who showed so much as a slight interest in dating me and Severus made it perfectly clear that their presence wasn't welcome.

"Sorry," I chuckled. "I was just lost in my thoughts," I told him, embarrassed, as I climbed to my feet and picked up my books, storing them neatly in my bag. A quick glance behind me showed that James was adding some quick last minute details to his notes. As I hoisted my bag to my shoulder though, he put his quill down, sealed the bottle of ink and shoved all his things haphazardly into his bags.

"The great Lily Evans lost in thought during class?" Malcolm joked as we made our way towards the door to the classroom, James following behind us. "What is the world coming to, eh, Potter?" He joked, including James in the conversation. I rolled my eyes at the use of James's last name. Why is it that unless they're close mates, the guys here at Hogwarts always insist on calling each other by their last name? It makes no sense to me.

"It must be coming to an end, Clearwater," James said calmly, a weird tone in his voice that I couldn't quite recognise what emotion it was showing. "We should probably be running round panicking like headless chickens or something," He intoned in a mock serious voice.

"Oh stop it, you two," I blushed at their gentle mocking. "We all have off days when we can't focus on schoolwork,"

"It's more of an off day when I do pay attention in class," James shrugged with a cheeky wink.

"Can't say the same for me," Malcolm chuckled.

"Yeah but you're in Ravenclaw, Clearwater, and you have a certain reputation to keep up," James told him sarcastically. "Can't have any member of Ravenclaw slacking off,"

"Better to be brainy than brawny," Malcolm shrugged unconcernedly, not too upset by James's mocking attitude towards his house.

"Unless you're ever caught out in a fight without your wand, then it's better to be brawny I'd say," James shrugged. "So what were you thinking about, Lily, that would distract you so deeply from one of your favourite lessons?"

"Just a weird dream I had last night," I shrugged. "I'd already studied about Patroni before in the past, so I didn't think I would miss much by not paying attention,"

"I'd say that that was a bit of an understatement," Malcolm laughed. "That was an amazing piece of magic you did,"

"Thanks, but it was nothing special," I downplayed it all, uncomfortable.

"What was the dream about?" James asked curiously seeing how uncomfortable I was at the mention of what I'd done in Charms. "Must have been some dream to distract you from class,"

"Yeah it was," I shrugged, unwilling to tell James about it because it involved him and unwilling to talk about it in front of Malcolm because it just felt to personal and intimate for everyone else to know. "One of the nicest ones I've ever had," I was being truthful there, any girl in Hogwarts would love to have a dream where James Potter came and stroked their hair and kissed their fingers while they slept.

Malcolm looked closely at me, "Oh, it was about a guy then?" He chuckled at the shocked expression on my face at his words. He chuckled at the shocked expression on my face at his words. "You've got that soft expression on your face you only get when you like a guy. Come on, tell us who it is" James shot me a shocked glance.

"It's not like that," My face flushed with colour as I denied it. "It was just an incredibly sweet dream and I couldn't help replaying it in my mind." I admitted with a sigh.

"Sounds like someone is in denial to me," Malcolm laughed. "You must like whoever it is to have that expression on your face," He said confidently.

"I don't like him like that," I defended myself. "He's just a good friend of mine, nothing more. It's no big deal,"

"I'd say if you're dreaming about him you like him more than you think," Malcolm shrugged. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about," He laughed.

"But I don't like him like that," I shrugged. "Just leave it, Malcolm, you wouldn't understand,"

"But if you tell me who it is…" Malcolm started but James quickly interrupted and I was really grateful that he did. I really didn't want people pushing me to talk about this because I just wasn't going to.

"Leave it, can't you see she doesn't want to talk about it?" James glared at Malcolm who quickly shut up. I sent James a grateful look, glad that he at least was willing to respect my privacy and leave things alone. We'd been slowly walking down the Charms corridor towards the main staircase where we would head on down to the dungeons to Potions while Malcolm would head off to his next lesson. "Don't you have Transfiguration to get to, Clearwater?" James asked pointedly as we paused at the top of the staircase. "McGonagall won't like it if your late to her lesson, you know,"

"True," Malcolm shrugged as though this wasn't such a big deal though. I knew that that was just an act though because he hates being late to class. "I'll see you around later on," He told me, quickly hugging me.

"Yeah," I smiled softly. "Enjoy Transfiguration," I told him with a wry grin. Transfiguration isn't one of his favourite subjects.

"I won't do," He laughed, turning and heading down the corridor as James and I headed down the staircase to the lower levels.

"Thanks for that, James," I told him with a grin as we headed down the last few steps, people crowding around us. I was surprised that Black and Lupin weren't walking with us to class. They were conspicuous by absence. "Sometimes Malcolm doesn't know when to let things be,"

"Yeah," James chuckled. "I figured you didn't want to talk about it. Nice bit of wand work you did there in charms. That's one stunning patronus you've got there," He complimented me generously.

"Thanks," I laughed. "Though the doe thing was never anything I did. It's just the form that suited me, I guess,"

"It must have taken you ages to learn how to do it," James mused thoughtfully.

"A couple of months back in fifth year," I shrugged. "It's easy to get a corporal patronus when there are no Dementors around. I had to practise with a boggart when I was learning and it took me ages to even manage to get the incantation out." I shrugged.

"When did you learn to do it?" He asked curiously.

"I finally managed to do it just after the OWLs exams," I admitted. "Once the pressure of the exams was lifted it was a lot easier to do,"

James looked shocked about that. I think he expected for me to only just have learnt it instead of being able to do it and keep it a secret for so long. James seems to be one of those people who the minute he manages to do something complicated like that, has to tell the world that he can do it. I'm quite the opposite to him in that respect, I don't always like to show off everything that I can do. I would rather people underestimate me and not know what secret weapons I can pull out of the bag when I need them. It makes me a lot less predictable to anyone who might want to take me on.

"Wow," He finally gasped. "That's amazing. Most grown up witches and wizards can't do that spell,"

"They probably could if they were willing to put the time and practise in," I disagreed. "You just have to be patient and keep trying and eventually it will come to you. If you give up because it's too hard you'll never master it," I shrugged, still downplaying it all.

"True," James mused to himself before suddenly asking me, "Can you show Sirius, Remus, Peter and me how to do that sometime? It seems like one of those spells we should learn before we leave school. My dad says Voldemort is trying to recruit the Dementors to his side and if they're no longer under the control of the Ministry then I'd rather be able to drive them off should they ever come near me rather than rely on luck to keep them away,"

"Sure," I shrugged. "If we get some spare time anytime soon, I'll show the you the basics and it's up to you to practise it,"

"Thanks, Lily," James said appreciatively as we headed towards the corridor to the dungeon for the second time this week. "You're an awesome person,"

"You won't be saying that when I'm making you work your butt off tonight on the prefect rotas," I laughed gently. James always tries to put off doing the rotas until the last possible moment and as we were getting near to the end of the last one he drew up, he needed to make another.

"Damn," He sighed. "I was hoping you would have forgotten about those,"

"Nope," I told him with a cheeky grin. "It takes a lot to distract me from remembering that, James."

"I think I know something that will make you forget about it?" James said suddenly, his trademark twinkle returning to his eyes as we reached the last corridor before we reached the next class. "Something guaranteed to make you forget about it?"

"Oh yeah?" I challenged with a grin, curious to see what he had planned. "You really think so?"

"Oh I know so," James said confidently with a sly grin on his face.

"Well go on then," I laughed, "Make me forget."

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you," James told me as we entered the classroom.

"Just do whatever it is you think will make me forget it," I told him impatiently.

"Who was the guy in your dream?" He asked suddenly with a sly grin. I swear, I wanted to hit him when he said that. I settled for glaring at him and reaching for my wand.


	7. Bluebell Flames

Hey guys,

I just wanted to thank you all for the huge response I got for the last chapter. I was shocked that so many of you liked it enough to leave feedback and deeply touched that you took the time to leave me feedback or to add my story to your favourites. It encourages me to keep writing and has also encouraged me to start developing plot ideas for the next LE/JP story I intend t write once this story is done.

I'm sorry it took so long to update. I did start this chapter just after I finished the last one and got about 3000 words written before a huge dose of writers block and college work hit me and I just didn't have the time to work on it. Sorry also that this chapter hasn't been beta read and any mistakes corrected, my beta is busy and I didn't want to wait to post it. Just as soon as it's been beta read I'll update the chapter with the corrected copy. Until then I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Hugs and stuff

Katie

**Disclaimer:** I do not own or have any rights to anything mentioned, described and included in any Harry Potter related book/movie or product. This is just my interpretation of how Lily and James got together. All rights reserved to J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter 7**

**James's P.O.V.**

I wandered down to the lake later on that day, making my way towards a figure that was sat on the shore, huddled up in a black coat against the wind. She'd been sat there for about an hour ever since she'd finished her dinner in the Great Hall and hurried out into the castle grounds. I guessed when I saw her leave that she wanted some time on her own, to gather her thoughts or something like that that girls often seem to do. I'd been pestering and joking with her all through classes, trying to tease out the identity of the boy in her dream and getting absolutely nowhere with it and Remus told me that if I didn't want to push her over the edge or annoy her, I'd be better off leaving her alone for a while.

Still, I'd left her alone for an hour and I figured that now was a good time to go and talk to her. It was getting cold outside and I wasn't sure if she had her cloak on her. I didn' t want her to catch her death of cold out there and thought it a good idea to go and check on her. At least, that was the excuse I was using, Sirius claims I was just looking for a legitimate excuse to stalk her without getting slapped for it.

"Lily?" I asked softly, pausing a few feet away from her, looking down at her as the wind danced through her hair, twirling the odd tendril that had escaped from her French plaits. I love her hair; it's so alive and vibrant in a world that seems to get duller and darker as each day goes by. It's cliché to put it like this, but her hair shines like a fire and no matter how dark the room gets as the sun goes down and the night unfolds, the fire will still burn and provide a little bit of hope and warmth for those around. "You okay?" I asked gently, not wanting to startle or scare her or disturb the calm and stillness of the moment.

She didn't answer for a moment and I wondered if she'd heard me. I stepped closer and crouched down next to her and glanced down at her face as she gazed out across the lake. "I'm fine," She said softly after a moment, her eyes not moving from the point in the distance that she was gazing at. "Just needed to be somewhere quiet and still," She said wryly.

"Want me to go?" I offered understandingly. When I want to think about things or even forget about things that bother me, I take my broom down the Quidditch Pitch and fly in circles for hours, each lap gradually getting wider and longer as I got lost in my thoughts and I started flying across the sky over and beyond the grounds of Hogwarts. I know when I need to think I don't like other people around, badgering me to make conversation when I just want to be alone with my thoughts.

She smiled, her eyes gleaming even in the dim light, as the wind suddenly gusted, tearing at our clothes as it rushed past us. I would love to be flying tonight, letting the strength of the wind push me along even faster than my broom could normally fly on a still day. Something I would love even more and would probably seem a little bit on the cliché, would be to go flying with Lily. She's a great flyer on her own but it would be magical to fly with her. "No, I was about to get up and go back to the castle anyway," She shivered a little and wrapped her cloak tighter around her shoulders. "It's getting a little cold out here," She admitted to me. I confess I felt a little disappointed that she didn't need my cloak. I admit it would have given me more than a little possessive thrill to see her in my cloak.

In a bid to draw the moment out a little longer, I pulled my wand out and performed a simple charm that we'd learnt in the first week of our first year here at the castle all those years ago and bluebell flames danced out of the tip of my wand, falling gently to the floor in front of us. "Is that better?" I didn't want her to go back up to the castle at the moment; I wanted some time alone with her with no distractions from the outside of the world, with no responsibilities, studies or worries to drag us down.

She stretched her hands out towards the glowing flames. I was fascinated by the way her skin reflected the gentle blue flames across her soft white skin. I wanted to reach out and trace it along her skin but I doubted she would appreciate that. She looks as me as a friend and I won't push it any further until a time when she's ready for more, if that time ever comes. I spent the last three years trying to push her into a relationship that I wanted and that just made her even more stubborn not to give me a chance, so now I'll take my cues from her and go with what is right for her and hopefully, with time, she'll see that maybe I am the right man for her and give me that chance.

"Yeah," She sighed softly, her eyes meeting mine properly for the first time since I'd joined her out here. Her gaze was strong and intense, nothing shy or secretive about it, as she gazed at my expression, openly searching for something in my face. I wondered what she was looking for, or even if she even knew what answers she was looking for in my face. I don't know what it was in that glance though but it sent tingles down my spine and made me feel like she was finally looking properly for the first time, seeing me for the person I could be if I'm given the chance. "Much better thanks," She admitted in a soft whisper.

Her hand reached out and touched my hand, squeezing gently in appreciation. It looked so tiny and dainty next to my hands, almost like a child's hand but there's no way I would ever mistake Lily for a child. Her skin was cool, the warmth of the fire not really taking effect on her hands yet, but soft, incredibly soft and gentle. I knew the rest of her would be just as smooth and just as soft as her hands and I had to forcibly stop myself from imagining how amazing it would feel to have those soft hands touch other parts of my body. I really didn't want to be distracted by lust and end up saying something stupid that would just ruin the moment. Tonight I wanted to make a memory, and a good one at that.

I gently enfolded her hand in mine and started to gently rub them, trying to rub some warmth into her hands, not wanting the cold to ruin what was turning into a perfect moment for me. "That's good," I said simply, for once in my life completely unsure about what to say. I wanted to ask her what she'd been thinking about, wanted to get inside her head and see what made her tick, what made her Lily Evans, what made her stand out from all the other faceless girls in this school but I respected her privacy enough not to ask about it.

After several moments of peaceful silence, she pulled her hand free from mine and placed it back in front of the flames. It was getting darker now and soon we would have to go back inside. A quick glance up at the moon showed that I didn't have to worry about getting Lily safely back inside the castle before the moon rose because we were still a few nights away from the full moon when Remus would go through his monthly torment.

"It's okay," She said suddenly, startling me and I looked down on her face, entranced always by the imperfect perfection of her face, confusion clearly etched on my own as I didn't understand what she meant. "You want to ask me what I was thinking about but you're scared that I might think you're trying to invade my privacy and make me angry," She grinned cheekily at me.

"Well you are really scary when you get mad," I admitted sheepishly.

"So scary that you went out of your way time after time, to make me loose my temper in the past at every chance that you got?" She pointed out with a wry grin.

"Since when has something being dangerous or scary ever stopped me from doing something," I shrugged. "Besides, you get this fiery sparkle in your eyes which just does something to a guy and I just couldn't resist bringing it out. Your so incredibly sexy and gorgeous when your mad," I shrugged honestly, a sly twinkle in my eyes and my tongue slightly in cheek as I couldn't resist teasing her a little bit more.

She laughed at this. "Sometimes, James, I think you have more courage than sense," She told me lightly, a different sparkle appearing in her eyes, one that I consider to be exclusively mine. Mind you, I think all the sparkles in her eyes should be exclusively mine. And all her smiles too, come to think of it. "I bet you hate being stuck here in school, dealing with all the petty squabbles of school life when you feel you could be doing a lot more good outside, helping with the war," She guessed softly and I could hear the echo of my frustration in her voice.

If you try and push Lily down, try and force her into a corner, she'll turn into a dragon and fight back. I bet she wishes she was out there in the real world, fighting for her right to be treated as an equal with all the purebloods, for her right to do magic and live without fear or misery. Here at Hogwarts, we're so protected from the outside world, so sheltered and away from all the danger that sometimes it's easy to forget about the horrors of what Lord Voldemort and his armies have been reeking on this country. It just seems like its happening somewhere else and that it could never touch our lives at all, but it's not like that at all. In fact, it's probably a lot worse than any of us can even imagine and yet in a few months, we'll be released into that world and we'll either hit the ground running or die with our heads still buried in the sands.

And it will be a lot worse for Lily. If she had just been your average Muggle-born witch I wouldn't be so worried and scared about what will happen to her when we leave Hogwarts. But Lily is so much more than average, so amazing, so kind and so successful that she's made a lot of enemies within Slytherin house who will have the means to make sure that the Death Eaters target her and put her back into what they see as being her place, if not kill her outright. She'll literally be at the top of the Death Eater's most wanted list and that thought terrifies the life out of me.

I tried, once, thinking about what the world would be like if Lily was killed, how I would cope and survive without her and I just couldn't do it. Every muscle in my body locked in position and I just couldn't breathe, couldn't get the air into my body to keep my lungs and heart going. If Lily died, then I don't think I could manage any form of continued existence without her.

"Sometimes I feel like that," I admitted softly, looking down at my own hands so that she couldn't see into my eyes. She's too observant and if I let her see my eyes right now then she would probably see every single thought and emotion that was passing through my mind right now and that would probably scare her off. "Sometimes it drives me crazy how life can carry on with it's trivial worries and stupid pointless essay questions about things I'll probably just forget anyway when we leave when so much evil is happening out there. But then other times I'm glad I'm still here because I love being carefree and irresponsible and I don't want to lose that just yet,"

"I know," She whispered softly. "I'm terrified for my family, that they might be targeted when there is nothing I can do to protect them. If the Death Eaters chose to attack them then no defensive spells that I surround them with will keep them safe," She confessed shakily, her voice losing the confident note in it that I was used to hearing.

I wanted to gather her up into my arms and hold her until the fear in her voice disappeared, to whisper in her ears that everything would be okay, that her family would be fine and that no one would even dream of hurting them at all but it would be a lie and Lily and I both know that it would be a lie.

"Do you know what the worst part about it is?" She asked me suddenly, picking up a pebble from the ground next to her and hurling it into the water angrily, throwing it as far as she possibly could.

"No," I said honestly, not understanding fully how hard any of this actually is for her. I don't have her background so I can't even begin to wonder what it must be like for her. "Tell me," I begged softly, needing to know.

I noticed out of the corner of my eye when a tear fell onto her pale white cheek and trickled down. I reached out and wiped it away, my heart heavy with her pain. "The worst part is that I can't tell them about all the bad things that are happening, I can't tell them that me being a witch puts their very lives in danger and that at any moment their lives might be cut brutally short through no fault of their own," Lily told me softly and I could hear the pain behind every single word she said. "They gave up so much so that I could come here and study magic and they're so proud and supportive of everything that I do that I just can't face them to tell them that it might be all my fault that one day they might be murdered just because they unknowingly gave birth to a witch. That despite all the things I can do, I can't keep them safe. I just can't imagine how they would ever even begin to understand the situation," She admitted.

I stop trying fight the urge to put my arm round her and gave it, gently levitating the bluebell fire away from us so that I could pull her to me, spreading my cloak around her much smaller body as she snuggled into me. "It's not your fault Lily," I whispered into her hair. "They wouldn't blame you for any of this,"

"I know, I know," She admitted shakily. "And that's the worst part about it because it feels like it is my fault. I was selfish enough to want to come here in the first place and now that selfishness might hurt my family,"

This made me angry, furious even at all those people who thought that purity of blood meant everything in our world. How could they think that someone as talented, as good and generous and loving as Lily is unworthy to study magic just because her parents never did? It's absolute rubbish.

"Never, ever believe that this is your fault, Lily Evans!" I told her fiercely, determined to get my point across, determined to make her believe undoubtedly in what I was about to tell her. "You have just as much right to study magic and to live in the magical world as those purebloods that are descended from the original seven clans. Just because they feel threatened by the thought of losing the power and privileges' that they have been taught from birth to expect as their right, just because they are becoming lazy and arrogant, thinking that they don't need to work hard and study well to still gain all the riches that they feel life owes them and just because they need a scapegoat to blame for all the changes that they see happening in society doesn't mean that you are unworthy or that any of this is your fault! It never has been your fault and it never will be your fault,"

"Really?" She asked hesitantly as if unsure to believe what I was telling her. In that moment I wanted to hunt down anyone who has ever in the past tried to make her feel ashamed of her background and anyone who would ever do it in the future and hex them into oblivion, hex them so badly that they'd never even dream of trying to make a person feel unworthy just because they don't come from a wizarding family.

"Really," I told her firmly. "You are the kindest, least judgemental person I know and that's more important than any family history or any magical talent,"

"That's sounds like something Dumbledore would say," She said hesitantly but with more conviction in her voice than the last time she had spoken.

"He's a great man, Dumbledore is," I repeated the obvious, my respect for Dumbledore showing in my voice. I felt a hint of pride that she would compare me to such a great and powerful wizard. "Knows what he's talking about," I joked gently.

"Most of the time," Lily answered jokingly, her voice still soft. "Sometimes he talks absolute nonsense for the sheer heck of it all,"

"But he would argue that there is sense in nonsense sometimes, if your willing to look hard enough," I pointed out, trying to sound wise but probably just sounding silly. Lily didn't laugh at me for it though.

"He probably would," She sighed and her gaze travelled back across the wave, staring at some distant point on the horizon. Another gust of wind hit us and she snuggled even closer to me. I gently started to rub her arms like I had done with her hands before. I should have brought a pair of gloves with me when I came out to meet her, I'd feel a whole lot better about staying out here with her if I wasn't worrying about her fingers freezing up.

"Was that why you came out here?" I asked after a moment, not wanting there to be an awkward silence between us. "To worry about your parents?" I prompted.

There was a slight pause before she answered. "No, not really," She admitted quietly. "I just suddenly realised today how drastically everything has changed and how it feels like I've never noticed it all, like it all happened underneath my nose and I never gave it a moments thought. It scared me a little bit and I needed to finally sit down and think about it," She confessed with a laugh.

"What changes?" I asked curiously, wondering if she'd noticed the most important change of all.

"My perceptions of things really," She said slowly. "I remember when I first came here and I didn't know anyone other than Severus and I didn't know anything about magic other than what I'd read in my books and what he had told me, I thought the seven years here would last for eternity. I just couldn't imagine a world beyond Hogwarts, could never imagine myself getting older and older and having to leave. Logically, I knew it would happen but I just couldn't see how it would happen."

"I guess every child thinks that," I agreed with her, understanding what she meant. "I felt exactly the same way and I know Sirius did too,"

"Yeah but you and Sirius are the kinds of people who will never grow up," She laughed. "No matter how well you put on the act of being all grown up and mature, deep down there will always be that well of mischief and troublemaking that will flare up and cause you to pull any outrageously inappropriate prank you little minds can think off,"

"I'll have you know that none of our pranks were ever inappropriate," I chuckled defensively but knowing that she didn't mean it in a bad way, she was just trying to lighten the mood a little and have a joke with me, maybe even to get me back for the teasing that I'd done of her today.

"Sure, sure," She chuckled. "That's another thing I've noticed today, I can actually appreciate some of the stunts you pull. Some of them even make me smile or laugh?" She confessed sheepishly. "But don't tell anybody, I do have a reputation to maintain," She winked at me conspiratorially.

I laughed with her. "It will be our little secret," I agreed light heartedly. "One that I'll take to my grave with me. There is no way on earth anyone would drag the secret past my lips, no torture, no spell and certainly no potion could drag the words from my mouth," I promised jokingly, joining in the spirit of her joke.

"Because if I ever found out that you did tell anybody my deep, dark secret then I would have to kill you in the most painful way I could imagine," She played along playfully, trying to pull an evil face that just made her look even more adorable as the end of her nose wiggled slightly. I really wanted to kiss it at that moment and I really had to fight the urge to lean forward even further and do that. "After all, you know I have a nasty temper,"

"The whole school knows about your nasty temper," I sniggered. "It's not really that much a secret. Anyway, if anything ever happens to me, a violent murder or something, Sirius swears that he'll tell anyone who'll listen to investigate you first," I invented quickly.

She lightly punched my arm. "Oi," She glared at me, causing her smooth white forehead slightly. "That's unfair! I only lose my temper when you provoke me into it. No one else is crazy enough to provoke me like that,"

"It's because secretly, deep down, you must be a siren or a circe. You captivate me, bewitch me into doing things that no other man would dare do," I told her half seriously.

"Don't be silly, James," She blushed and her cheeks turned rosy with her embarrassment and also, a slight hint of pleasure. That's one of the things I've noticed recently, one of the things that helps to keep me hoping that one day she will one day love me back. It's only recently that she's started feeling anything other than irritation and anger that she used to feel when I paid her what I guess she considers to be wildly outrageous compliments.

"It's not silly, half of the boys would love to date you," I told her honestly. "They're just less open about it than I ever was," I shrugged unconcernedly. The other guys that like Lily, and I could write you a list of all the guys I know that have a crush on her, aren't really any competition for me. She considers most of them to be friends and they're too shy to make a move on her or too scared that I would hex the living daylights out of them.

"No they wouldn't," Lily waved her hand in a gesture of denial. "Anyway, this is getting off what we were talking about."

"Fine, we'll change the subject back, only because you know I'm right and you don't like that idea," I grinned arrogantly at her and she just rolled her eyes. "What other changes have you noticed?" I asked curiously, wondering what was going on inside that amazing head of hers.

"You, you've changed loads," She said simply and I stared at her in shock. So she had noticed the changes I'd work so hard to make in myself for her. A bubble of elation built up in my chest at this, I really hoped this was a sign of progress, a softening in her feelings towards me, a lowering of the barriers that she uses to protect her emotions from the often careless actions of other people.

"Me? Changed?" I asked nonchalantly, trying to hide my inner thoughts from her. She watched me closely and I wasn't sure if I completely managed to hide it from her. Sometimes those bottomless green eyes see too much for my comfort, observing things that most other people miss. "Nah, you must have the wrong guy, I've always been this responsible, hardworking guy you see before me," I somehow managed to say in a serious tone with a serious expression on my face. Unfortunately I couldn't hold the act for long and when she raised her eyebrow in that sexy way she has, clearly telling me that she didn't believe me for a single moment.

"Yeah right," She snorted as she watched my expression break into a huge grin that I just couldn't keep off my face. The light was nearly gone from the sky now and the bluebell flames were the only real source of light. "In your dreams, maybe, but in reality I've seen four years act more responsible than you," She told me lightly, no trace of condemnation in her voice which warmed inside too, feeling good in the knowledge that she seemed to finally accept that small trouble making part of me that takes over my mind and body sometimes and causes me to do crazy things that drive her to distraction.

"I'll have you know I have very vivid dreams," I protested quickly, blushing when I realised what other meanings my words could have.

Lily picked up on the alternative meanings. "I'm sure all teenage boys do, James," She joked softly.

"Okay, so this recent responsible development in my character is a fairly recent modification, I'll admit, completely inspired by your own charming self," I acknowledge with a smile. "You were right at the end of fifth year, I was nothing but a bullying toe rage and that didn't sit right with me, I guess." I said quickly, feeling more than a little bit self conscious about it all. This wasn't an easy area of conversation for me.

She shook her head in irritation at something and from the sudden tension in her shoulders I guessed that it was aimed at herself rather than me. "When did this change happen, James? When did this all start and why did I never notice it?" She asked quietly. "I mean I pride myself on noticing things like this and yet I completely missed what was happening right underneath my own nose." She sounded extremely irritated about herself.

I massaged her shoulders lightly, trying to relax some of the tension out her shoulders. We were under enough stress at the moment, what with our studies and head student duties and I didn't want her adding any more worries on top of that. "Probably because you were so used to hating me and so busy running the ever popular We Hate James Potter Club, that you missed the flyers I handed out announcing the change in management to the rest of the world," I joked awkwardly.

Her forehead furrowed again as she frowned and bit her lip, her eyes not meeting mine for a moment as she looked down at her hands, her expression unsure. Then suddenly she met my gaze, bold and full on, a small fire blazing in their green depths. "I never hated you, James," She said quietly. I raised my eyes in doubt but she firmly shook her head and carried on ignoring my protests. "Oh, you frustrated the hell out of me a lot of the times I hated how you act towards other people, especially the Slytherins, but I could never bring myself to hate you. How could I when I saw how loyal you were to Remus and Peter? How you stuck up for them when the Slytherins were bullying poor Peter in his first year and when Severus kept insinuating that Remus was a werewolf in fifth year. You stuck by them when other people turned away and I can't hate someone who does that. I find it hard to hate anyone really she confessed." Her words and her honesty shocked me, especially the bit about Moony.

"You think Moony is a werewolf?" I gasped, feigning shock and horror. This was an act I was used to putting on and I knew she wouldn't see through this one.

"I don't know," She shrugged. "I deliberately don't think about it. All the signs are there and that's one interpretation but there could also be a hundred other meanings to everything. If he is a werewolf then my heart hurts for the harsh life he'll face but if he isn't and there's another reason that he doesn't want people to know about then that's his own choice. Who am I to pry," She shrugged.

I swear if I wasn't already in love this girl, in that moment I would have fallen in love with her then. Any person who can accept one of my best friends like that and be so supportive and not judgemental is literally worth a million times her weight in gold. "It wouldn't bother you if he was a werewolf?" I asked, shock toning my voice. I think she took the shock to mean that I hadn't consider the fact that my best friend might be a werewolf more than anything else.

"Not really," She shrugged. "At the end of the day, he's still Remus and he's still my friend. If he is a werewolf and does turn into a crazy wolf once a month then it's not his fault, I mean it's not like he asked for it to happen to him," She said quietly.

"You are absolutely amazing girl, Lily Evans, one in a million, I swear," I told her, my voice thick with emotion.

She shook her head vehemently. "I'm not, I'm just a normal teenage girl," She chuckled, waving my words aside as idle flattery. I didn't force the issue, there would be other times for me to persuade her how amazing she is. "Besides, that's not the point." She said in frustration.

"What is the point then?" I asked, grateful to get off the topic of Moony and his lycanthropy. I got to my feet, gently pulling Lily up with me. "Come on, it's time to go inside. It's too cold to stay out much longer," A flick of my wand vanished the bluebell coloured flames.

"But it's so pretty out here tonight," Lily protested half heartedly.

"It's also very cold," I told her, noticing that she was shivering now that the fire has gone. "Come on, I want to sit by a warm fire tonight and get some of my homework done," I started walking back to the castle and after one last look around her, Lily followed me. I pulled her into my side, wrapping my cloak around her to shield her from the cold as we headed towards the huge doors that led into the Main Hall.

"James Potter actually doing homework? What is the world coming too?" She asked teasingly, poking me in the side.

"Hey, enough of the jokes about my new responsibility, you'll hurt my ego if you carry on like that," I told her, pretending to be offended by her words.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," She replied dryly.

"It would be an awful thing to happen," I told her seriously. "But we're getting distracted again from the point you wanted to talk about," I pointed out, curious by now to know what was bothering her about the change in me so much.

Lily stumbled suddenly, nearly tripping over a small hole in the ground that was hidden by the darkness. I used this as an excuse to wrap my arms firmly around her tiny waist to stop her from falling and used the Lumos charm to light our way. "I'm just trying to work out how on earth I managed to miss this huge change that took place. After all, it can't have been a recent development or Dumbledore would never have made you head boy," She reasoned logically.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Lily," I shrugged. "It was a very gradual change and I made a few huge slip ups on the way that probably made you think I was just the same old boy I'd always been."

"Probably," She agreed with, seeming happy by my explanation. "Still, I have to admit, I really like this new mix of the responsible, hard working head boy mixed in with the trouble making, mischievous boy that I remember. Surprisingly I find the combination to be extremely endearing," She mused out loud.

I wished I could bottle up the elation that filled me when she said that so that I could save it and feel that good on another occasion when things maybe aren't going so well. She likes the new changes in me, thinks that they make me endearing. I felt like I could dance a jig at her words but I managed to suppress that urge but all the way back to the Gryffindor common room I felt like I was floating, dancing through the clouds. All night long, all I could hear inside my head was the echo of her words, filling me with hope.

I'll take endearing. Endearing is an emotion I can take and hopefully mould into something much deeper and meaningful. Endearing means I have more of a chance with Lily Evans than I've ever had before in my life. Who wouldn't be elated and hopeful in my place?


	8. Hedgehogs and Hat Tricks

**Sorry it took so long for me to update. It's been a difficult few months with quite a few family problems, college crisis and job hunting. But I'm back now with a new chapter and I hope you all like it. Feel free to leave me any comments or feedback. It is appreciated.**

**Hugs and stuff**

**Katie  
**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own or have any rights to anything mentioned, described and included in any Harry Potter related book/movie or product. This is just my interpretation of how Lily and James got together. All rights reserved to J.K. Rowling.

**Summary: After a confrontation with James after potions, Snape decides to seek his revenge in a way James will never expect against an old friend. Will James realize what he's up to in time to stop him before someone important gets hurt?**

**Chapter Eight: Hedgehogs and Hat Tricks  
**

**Lily's P.O.V.**

I glared across the room at James who was determinedly trying to avoid meeting my eyes as he tried to appear engrossed in some deep, meaningful discussion with Peter and Remus an attempt to try and fool me into thinking it hadn't been him who'd charmed the hedgehog I'd been given to transfigure into a tortoise to stick to the ceiling of the classroom with some twisted spell that he must have invented himself because none of the charms I'd tried to get it down had worked.

Footsteps approached my desk from behind. "Miss Evans," I turned to see Professor McGonagall gazing disapprovingly down at my empty desk. "Where is your hedgehog?" She asked coldly.

There would never be a good way to explain to McGonagall that my hedgehog was currently stuck to the ceiling and that I couldn't manage to get it down. If there's one thing that McGonagall will not tolerate, its people larking around in her classes. James will probably end up with a detention for this and though, to be honest, he did sort of deserve it for playing such a stupid, immature prank, he was only doing it to try and cheer me up.

It had been a bad morning with four students being pulled aside at breakfast by Dumbledore who had the awful task of breaking the news to them that someone in their family had been killed in a Death Eater attack. It had brought back all my worries and fears for my own family and I'd had to fight the urge to race to the Owlery and send my mum a quick letter demanding to know how they were. I couldn't do that. That would just make my mum suspicious and I can't lie to her, not even through a letter. She's my mother; she just knows me too well and can see through me every time I try to mislead her about something.

I just decided to bite the bullet and tell her, pointedly glancing up at the ceiling. "My hedgehog is stuck on the ceiling, Professor," I pointed up to where the poor creature hung.

"What on earth is it doing on the ceiling?" McGonagall demanded in exasperation.

A dry voice piped up from the front. "From the looks of it, just hanging around, Professor," Sirius piped up from the front. He'd been moved there earlier by McGonagall in an attempt to prevent him from causing any trouble with James. Fat lot of luck that that would ever work considering that the two of them are more that capable of causing trouble on their own without the other and I knew for a fact that they had a pair of magic mirrors that allowed them to communicate somehow whenever they were separated, thus enabling them to coordinate their pranks to cause maximum havoc.

McGonagall's lips thinned. "Thank you for that assessment, Mr Black," She said sternly, turning her head slightly to give Sirius a withering look before looking back at me. "But I would appreciate it if you would keep such observations to yourself, than you very much,"

I looked quickly down at my shoes, a sick feeling churning up my stomach, even though I knew I hadn't done anything wrong and that McGonagall probably knew that I hadn't had anything to do with sticking my hedgehog to the roof of the classroom. But still, I hate getting in trouble for anything; I just don't like people shouting at me. It just makes me feel so small and bad that I'll go out of my way to avoid getting in trouble.

McGonagall arched her eyebrows in that way that she had that said everything she needed to say without her opening her mouth and speaking a single word. However she chose to reinforce it with a dangerous controlled, "Miss Evans?" as she gazed down at me. I'd never noticed before that McGonagall was so tall. I always thought I was quite tall but next to her I was quite positively short.

Glancing back at James showed me he was watching McGonagall with a twisted grin on his face. He saw me look over and gave me a cheeky wink. I felt a childish urge to shake my fist at him or stick my tongue out but under the close scrutiny of McGonagall's gaze. "I was just about to transfigure my hedgehog when someone knocked my textbook to floor." I explained, suddenly realising that it wasn't an accident that my book ended up on the floor. "By the time I'd picked it up, my hedgehog was on the ceiling." I shrugged, blushing when I felt the eyes of the entire class on me. I hate being the centre of attention.

"Then why didn't you get it down?" McGonagall demanded. "You have a wand and Professor Flitwick says your charms work is adequate so surely you could easily have got it down and carried on with your lesson," She said coldly.

Adequate at charms? If I'm only adequate at Charms then I should just give up and go and live back in the Muggle world because Charms is my best subject. "If she's only adequate at charms the rest of us will have no hope in the NEWTS then," James piped up behind me.

"Be quiet, Mr Potter," McGonagall didn't bother to turn around and look at him. She knows from experience that that would be a huge tactical error with James who will argue himself blue in the face to make a point.

"I tried," I shrugged. "But none of the spells I've used will get it down,"

McGonagall sighed and pulled her own wand out. She gave it a violent swish and pointed it at the hedgehog. It glowed brightly and let out a loud squeak but nothing happened. It didn't budge an inch. She tried again to no avail and then tried a different spell, flicking the tip of the end of her wand as though trying to dislodge a fly from the tip and a series of violent sparks spat out the end of her wand at the poor hedgehog that must at this stage be terrified out of its little mind.

James at this stage was struggling to hide his laughter as a fit of coughing, Remus who was stood behind him rolled his eyes when I caught his gaze and Peter looked like he too was struggling to contain his laughter, his face twitching and twisting in a way that reminded me eerily of a mouse or rat. Their laughter and mischief was infectious and I suddenly found it hard to stifle my own giggles, sensing that it wouldn't improve McGonagall's mood and at the moment, it looked as though it was a foregone conclusion that James would end up in a detention and it wouldn't look good if both head students ended up in a detention over something as mundane and surreal as a hedgehog being stuck on the ceiling.

"Potter," McGonagall turned to where he was stood and glared at him. James had to consciously focus on keeping a straight face. "Get the hedgehog down off the ceiling now!" She demanded. "As Head Boy you should be setting an example on how to behave both in class and around the school, not causing as much trouble and disruption in class and in the corridors as you possibly can! Get it down now!"

"But it wasn't me!" James protested vehemently, perhaps a little too vehemently. "It's Sirius whose been practising levitating objects without using his wand!" Like when people watch tennis, everyone's head in the class swivelled to the front of the classroom where Sirius was lounging against the wall, whistling innocently, something he only ever did when he was in trouble.

"Mr. Black? Would you care to explain?" McGonagall demanded as her lips went even thinner.

I could see in his eyes that he was debating in his mind how to answer that one. Part of him really wanted to turn round and say that no he didn't care to explain but one of the things I've noticed about Sirius over the years is the fact that he has an incredible sense of self preservation and right now, saying something like that to McGonagall when she's under lord only knows what pressure at the moment.

"Technically it's only partly my fault," Sirius settled on making sure that if he was going to go down, he was going to take someone down with him. There was no way Sirius would want to be in detention on his own tonight. I was curious though as to how he'd manage to wriggle his way out of this one.

"Only partly your fault?" You'd think that McGonagall would know to expect anything from James and Sirius after all the trouble they've caused in the past, especially when it comes to the creative excuses and their ability to try and worm their way out of any trouble she looked surprised that Sirius would even attempt to get out of this one.

"Yeah, well it was James that put the sticking charm on it," Sirius said, his expression quite serious for once in his life. "I only intended to float it to the ceiling and then bring it back down. James was the one who stuck it up there,"

Almost immediately everyone's attention shifted back to James who glared back at Sirius. "Only because Peter said he'd found this spell in a library book that he reckoned could use to stick a person to the roof without them falling and I said it wasn't possible," James shrugged. "Lily's hedgehog just got in the way of testing the spell," Honestly, I really do think that that boy has more bravery than brains sometimes, which is saying something because he is an extremely talented student but that was just plain stupid. "So really, it's not my fault Peter for once found a spell that works and it's not my fault Lily's hedgehog getting in the way. It was just a series of badly timed coincidences."

"That's an interesting way of putting it," McGonagall agreed. "But it's not going to get you out of trouble. Detention tonight for both you and Mr. Black." She glanced back up at the hedgehog. "Now will you remove Miss Evan's hedgehog from the ceiling so she can carry on with her work?" It must be some obscure spell if McGonagall had to ask James to take it down. If she had the time to flick spells at it all afternoon, she could probably get it down eventually I think she has classes all day so she doesn't have the time.

James' mouth twisted apologetically. "I can't, Professor," He sighed.

"And why not?"

Peter spoke up at this moment, which was rather surprising to be honest. Normally when there's any sign of trouble, he leaves the talking to Sirius or James and to be fair to him, that's a smart idea because then teachers are more likely to focus their anger on James and Sirius meaning that he escapes some of the more harsher punishments. "Because someone ripped the page out of the book that had the counter spell written on it," He said earnestly.

I couldn't help the snort that escaped me and McGonagall sent me a quick glare before looking back. "5 points from Gryffindor, Mr. Pettigrew, for encouraging another student to experiment with non-curriculum spells in a classroom environment without knowing the relevant counter spell causing disruption to my lesson and other student's learning,"

"Well, when you put it like that, Professor, five points doesn't sound like a harsh enough punishment," Sirius said dryly.

"Sirius!" Peter glared at him. "Shut up!"

"Fine, will 20 points from Gryffindor suit you, Mr Black?" McGonagall asked.

"Well, no." Sirius shrugged. "That seems a little harsh,"

"Tough luck!" McGonagall arched her eyebrows as if challenging him to make some form of comment back in response. "Maybe in future you'll learn to keep your mouth shut." The bell rang marking the end of class and I swear McGonagall almost sighed in relief.

I grabbed my books and stuffed them into my bag, scooping my wand up as I did. All around the classroom everybody else followed suite apart from James and Sirius who knew from past experience that in their case it was a good idea for them to pack away until McGonagall excused them. As I headed towards the door, eager to get to lunch, I was half expecting for her to keep them behind to yell at them some more but in the head she just told them to show up at Professor Slughorn's office at seven o'clock tonight and then dismissed the class.

Slinging my bag onto my shoulder, I headed out the door, getting pushed and shoved by some of the Ravenclaw boys in our group who I'd overheard panicking about an unfinished essay for one of their other classes that they needed to finish before one o'clock or there would be much hell for them to pay with their teacher. They headed down the corridor towards the library while the rest of the group headed towards the hall.

A hand came down on my shoulder, making me jump. "Sorry about that, Tiger-Lily," Sirius grinned as he fell into step beside me. I glanced quickly to the left of me and there was James and Peter. Remus was no where to be seen. "We needed a reason to be down in the dungeons later on tonight and neither James nor Remus is on patrol tonight," He shrugged as though this explained everything that needed to be explained. "Sorry you didn't get to practise in class today but we all know would have completely outshone most of us today with you sheer brilliance,"

I rolled my eyes. "Why do you need to be down in the dungeons tonight? What trouble are you planning tonight?" I demanded with a sinking feeling that they were planning some sort of prank that would get them into serious trouble. "James, your head boy now, you can't be messing around in the dungeons like second years with too much spare time and delusions about their own abilities."

James met my gaze steadily, a pained look in his eyes as though he didn't want to upset me but with a stubbornness that told me that he felt that he felt that he had to do this. "We're not planning on playing any pranks or anything like that. We just want to try and get some information on what Snape's planning. That's all, I promise." His gaze was firm and there was something in his eyes that made me believe him.

"Trust us," Sirius shrugged. "There's only one thing more important than pranking the hell out of the Slytherins and that's making sure that no one in this school gets hurt because some pompous, self righteous pureblood nitwits think that some people aren't good enough to study here just because of their parents. Snivellus is planning something, planning to hurt somebody close to James and we're not going to let him do that,"

A wave of weariness came over me and I just shrugged my shoulders and the humour of the past five minutes died, replaced by the tension that had been present in the Great Hall at breakfast. I really didn't want to know anything more. The war has been something we all know about, something going on outside the school walls, something that could never touch us inside the walls. Deaths and attacks don't really touch the whole school because none of us ever saw the attacks. Sure on an individual level, it destroyed lives and caused untold pain, but nothing really effected the school as a whole. It's easy to forget what happens to other people's families and put it behind us when it doesn't touch our lives and for many, Hogwarts has become almost a beacon, a place where nothing can harm us.

Sirius was talking like he felt that war was coming to Hogwarts, as though even on these corridors Muggleborns would be targeted and terrorised. The logical part of me knew that this could happen, that as Voldemort grew in power, as more and more people were terrorised into doing what he wanted in order to keep themselves and their families saved, the sons and daughters of his followers would become more and more confident in their place in the school and they would start turning on those they deemed unworthy. They wouldn't do it openly when the teachers were around because that would just be plain stupid, they'd use the tactics that they'd always used, under hand and in secret when the teachers weren't around to police them. I'd always thought that it would happen, if it did happen, once I'd left Hogwarts, once I was out there in the real world, hopefully fighting to make a change.

Not while I was at Hogwarts. That was the last thing I'd thought about. I just couldn't imagine Hogwarts as anything but the safe, magical place I grew up in, where we could all explore the wonders of magic, to develop friendships that would last lifetimes, create memories of laughter and happiness to look back on fondly when we're all old and grey. It was a place where kids constantly wound up the teachers like James and Sirius had just done, got into trouble and where mischief and magic went hand in hand. Hogwarts as a warzone was not something I ever thought I'd see.

Logic is a cold, unfeeling emotion that can kill hope and suffocate happiness. It made me wish that I wasn't such a logical, academic person as the weight of these thoughts settled like lead in my stomach and unsurprisingly, I didn't really feel all that hungry anymore. I closed my eyes, dragging my hands over my eyes and pushing my hair back out of my eyes. I was growing up fast in a world that was getting darker and more dangerous as the days went by and I wasn't sure if I was ready to deal with it all. I wished I could go back to being the innocent, excited first year or even back to just last night, down by the lake with James when nothing seemed wrong with the world at all.

"Don't worry about it, Lily," Peter's voice broke through my thoughts as James grabbed hold of my hand, squeezing it firmly but gently in an attempt to reassure me. His gaze met mine again, concerned but comforting. "It's probably just Snivellus posing around for his little Death Eater friends, trying to panic James. I bet it turns out to be nothing," Peter lied but I nodded, pretending as though I believed him.

"Yeah," I nodded, pulling my hand away from James. "But I guess you just want to check just in case they are planning something,"

"It's better to be safe than to be sorry," James shrugged, putting his hand on my shoulder and pushing me down the corridor at a slightly faster rate than we'd been walking. In front of us, the rest of our group had already vanished and I could hear the distant thunder echoing up the staircase ahead of the rest of the school heading towards the Hall.

"I guess," I sighed, still not liking the whole idea. "Just don't hex anyone or anything. Just find out whatever it is you need to know and come straight back to the common room."

Sirius pulled a mock frown. "Oh but that will take all the fun out of the whole expedition," He said in a sulky voice, trying to lighten the mood by acting like the childish boy he could still be at times.

"I don't care," I snapped. "You're not going to sink to their level. If they attack you, you use reasonable force to defend yourself and then get out of there. No duelling in the corridor or using any unnecessary force. Promise me, James,"

He reached over and ruffled my hair. "I promise I won't even pull my wand out on a single one of them." He swore to me. "The Slytherins won't even know that we're there." I glared at him for touching my hair but he just winked cheekily at me and ruffled his own hair as well. I couldn't help it then, couldn't keep the childish urge inside me so I gave in and stuck my tongue out at him. His just arched his eyebrow. "That's real mature behaviour, Lily; you're an example to us all. How are we ever going to live up to those high standards?" He joked.

"Coming from the king of maturity himself," I snorted.

James ducked behind me and nudged Sirius in the arm. "You hear that, Sirius, Lily thinks I'm a king!"

"It was sarcasm, James," Sirius shrugged. "Really she just thinks you're a moron who stuck her hedgehog to the roof,"

We'd reached the stairs by now and started climbing down them. I was shaking my head at the pair of them. "You were the one who levitated it to the roof," I pointed out. "Your just as bad as he is, probably worse now that James is head boy and having to cut back on the trouble making,"

Sirius looked flattered at this, not the effect I was after but with Sirius it's very rare that you do, "Someone has to pick up the slack," He pointed out smugly. "We can't rely on some inexperienced second rate pranksters who are still learning the ropes and who don't know the tricks of the trade to get the job done. They'll screw up and putting the name of all Hogwarts pranksters to shame,"

"And we couldn't have that now, could we?" Sarcasm was clearly laced into my voice. "You couldn't make my life and the lives of the other prefects slightly easier by none making huge messes that we get drafted in to clean up," I knew as I said it that it was a vain hope.

Both James and Sirius gave me disgusted looks. "We can't do that! Just imagine what trouble you'd all get into if you didn't have to clean up after us," Sirius looked horrified at the thought.

"Yeah, because I couldn't use that time to get my homework done," I pointed out to him.

"Exactly, you should be thanking us for saving you from countless hours of unendurable boredom," James said seriously.

I hit him gently in his arm. "Yeah because I wouldn't have had to do the homework later, staying up to unholy hours of the morning trying to get back the time I missed." I said dryly and a little bitterly.

Sirius shrugged. "Unlucky. Just think, if you hadn't of been such a goody two shoes then you wouldn't have been made a prefect and then you woudn't have had to clear up after our messes. It's your own fault really,"

"You keep telling yourself that," We'd reach the bottom of the staircases and were crossing the main hall.

"Don't worry," Sirius grinned. "We will," He said cheekily, waving across the hall to a crowd of girls. He spotted his girlfriend in the group and without a word headed over to her, sweeping her up off her feet and spinning her round while her friends looked on, giggling away.

A hint of jealously swept through me as I watched them. I've never really had feelings like that for another person, never wanted that kind of a relationship with a boy. Even when all the other girls around me were getting crushes on different guys around school, I never really felt anything towards the guys around me apart from mere friendship with them. Not even when James was asking me out all those times did I really feel anything more than a certain fondness for him when he wasn't being the moron he could be. Sure there was a spark between us, but only because he seemed to go out of his way sometimes to provoke my temper.

"Come on," James took my arm and led me towards the Great Hall. Peter and Remus made to follow us but James gave them a pointed look and they smirked before heading over to Sirius. I watched them go before turning back to face James. "If we wait around for him there'll be nothing left for us to eat," He must have caught sight of something in my eye, my expression that troubled him. "What's up?" His eyes softened in concern. That's something I like about James' eyes, you can always tell what exactly he's feeling because his eyes always reflect what's going on inside his head.

I shook my head. "It's nothing really. I'm just slightly jealous of them," I indicated behind me to where the pair who were probably still carrying on.

James frowned. "Your jealous of her?" He asked incredulously, looking slightly hurt at this. "You fancy Sirius?"

I rolled my eyes. "Merlin! No!" Shock laughter spilled out of me as we entered the Great Hall and headed towards some spare seats at the Gryffindor table. "I don't fancy anyone. I'm just jealous of the fact that he does have strong feelings towards someone. I've never felt that way about someone,"

James looked reassured at this, which surprised me because I would have thought it would have disappointed him that I didn't have feelings for him or anyone else. "Don't worry about it," He shrugged. "It will happen when it happens," He laughed. "It will probably hit you like a bolt of lightning when it does. Lord knows that's what happened with me," He joked.

I sat down at the far end of the table and James crossed round to sit across from me. I didn't know what to say in reply to him so I busied my hands by pouring myself a drink and then took a long swig of it. James was staring intently at me as though waiting for some form of reply but for the life of me I couldn't think of anything to say. I mean, what do you say in response to something like that?

"Hey! Lily!" I could have kissed Robin Fitzgerald as he rushed towards where I was sat, breathless as usual and looking extremely nervous and twitchy about something, rescuing me from an awkward moment with James. He's a second year Hufflepuff who I'd met last year on prefect patrols when he got lost trying to find his way back to his common room. I hadn't seen him around the corridors so far this year so I greeted him with a smile. He was a nice kid, obsessed with Muggles and anything to do with them. At one point he used to follow me down the corridors asking me to explain in detail how a car engine worked or a washing machine worked. It was quite cute except on really bad days when I haven't the patience to explain that I haven't the foggiest idea how something works, having not shown a great interest in stuff like that when I was younger and not having spent enough time in recent years in the muggle world to gain even the most limited of ideas about how things worse.

I placed my goblet down on the table in front of me as he came and sat down next me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw James frown in frustration. "Hey Robin," I smiled at him and he seemed to tense up in front of me which I thought was extremely strange for someone who was normally one of the most happy-go-lucky people I've ever seen. "What's up? Is everything okay?" I asked in concern. He was really acting out of character.

"I'm fine, thanks," He tried to smile but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Everything is great!"

I patted his shoulder lightly. "How's second year going?" I prompted, wondering if maybe he was getting bullied or something. I made a mental note to keep my eyes and ears open in case one of the Slytherins were targeting him because of the fact he's a pureblood obsessed with Muggle things. He was the kind of person who would target because he's too good natured to fight back.

I saw the panic in his eyes momentarily before he forced himself to relax a little. "Second year is fine. The lessons are a bit harder but their more interesting." He sighed. "I just wish I was in third year so I could take up Muggle Studies," He confessed.

I saw James roll his eyes. "I do that course," James told him quickly. "It's not as good or as easy as people make it out to be,"

"That won't bother Robin," I laughed. "He'll finally be able to get answers to all the questions I can't answer when he does that course,"

"Yeah," He grinned, for the first time his grin reached his eyes which sparkled in enthusiasm. "Can I show you a muggle magic trick I learnt?" He asked quickly, seeming to find some confidence inside himself.

"Sure, let's see," I grinned, trying to encourage him.

"Muggle magic tricks?" James demanded. "But Muggles can't do magic!" He looked completely befuddled by this. I guess it was something they hadn't taught him in Muggle Studies. I guess they had more important things on the curriculum.

I laughed. "It's not really magic like we do, James," I explained to him. "They rely on the person performing the trick's hands to be able to move faster in order to place a card or object in a certain place or position faster than the person watching it can see," I frowned. That was a bad explanation but I couldn't think of a better way to explain it. "They use slight of hand tricks to hide objects and make them appear to disappear and then reappear or to do card tricks. One of the most famous ones is pulling a rabbit out of a top hat," That was a better explanation but it still wasn't a great one and James was looking at me like I was making the whole thing up.

"Pull a rabbit out of a hat?" He repeated doubtfully. "Why would anybody want to do that?"

"Because it's entertaining and Muggles like the illusion of it being magic while also trying to work out how the person did it," I shook my head.

James narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me. "You're making this up, aren't you?" He glared at me. "You're trying to get me to believe this and then when I go and tell Sirius about this, he'll call me the biggest idiot on the planet and embarrass me in front of the whole school or something,"

"She's telling the truth!" Robin piped up in my defence. "Can I do my trick for you?" He repeated.

"Sure, go ahead." I smiled and then turned and glanced pointedly at James. "Just ignore my ignorant friend here," James glared back and then stuck his tongue out at me.

"Go ahead, kiddo, dazzle me with your muggle magic," James encouraged him.

I don't know how it happened but as Robin reached into his robes to pull whatever it was out of his pocket he was going to use to do his trick, his elbow caught my goblet and sent the contents flying all over me, soaking my robes with pumpkin juice. He grabbed at my goblet futilely but it was too late. "Merlin! Lily!" He blushed bright red. "I'm so sorry!" He pulled his wand out and pointed it at my robes. "Here, let me…"

Call me paranoid but I never like it when people point their wands at me so I gently nudge his wand away from me. "Don't worry about it," I said kindly. "I'll sort my robes out, you just pour me another drink."

He nodded, and started apologising profusely about the mess. I ignored him and stood up, quickly flicking my wand in order to dry and clean the stain off my robes before sitting down. By then he had a fresh goblet of pumpkin juice poured for me and I took it from him, sipping it gratefully.

"Miss Evans?" Professor Slughorn appeared behind me and I groaned, not really in the mood to deal with him today. "Would it be possible for me to have a quiet word with you about something?" He asked, indicating towards an shadowy alcove towards the side of the teachers table.

"Sure," I nodded, gulping down a bit more of my drink, suddenly really thirsty. "Just let me finish this," Slughorn nodded politely but was clearly impatient so I quickly finished my drink and stood up. "Robin? Would you mind waiting till later to show me your trick?" I asked him, not wanting him to think that I wasn't interested in what he had learnt.

My head swam sickeningly as I stood there and I felt dizzy. "Okay, Lily, I'll come and find you later on."

Robin's face swirled and distorted as I stood there and I found it difficult to focus on his words. I put my hand out blindly as the dizziness increase and Professor Slughorn took it and began to lead me away. I was grateful for this as I used him to stay upright as the world continued to swirl around me. Each step felt incredibly hard to make as I stumbled my way along towards the teachers table. Every sense suddenly felt hyper aware, like I could hear every single conversation in the hall assault my eardrums, my nose filled with the scent of many different meals which made me want to be sick and the hairs on my neck standing up on edge as though someone was staring at me.

The alcove, which almost moments before had seemed so close to me, now seemed incredibly far away and each step I took seemed like a marathon as sudden ringing developed in my hears. My heart raced in panic. This wasn't normal. I was fine just a few minutes ago and now I was feeling like this. My ears started to ring and when we did finally reached the alcove I leant against the cold stone, turning my face towards the icy blocks which cooled my suddenly burning skin.

Slughorn was saying something but I couldn't follow what he was saying. I felt so ill and just wanted to curl up in a ball and fall asleep as my head started to ache painfully, worse than any migraine I'd ever had in my life. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to focus on what was being said. He sounded further away now and his words were distorted, as though he was underwater.

The last thing I remembered before everything went black was trying to stop myself from slipping to the floor and someone calling my name extremely loudly, causing my head to almost explode in pain. With that final slash of pain I drifted into deep unconsciousness.

**A.N. My beta is away on holiday for two weeks and is unable to check this chapter so if you find any mistakes, want to make any plot suggestions or find any problems with the continuency of the story (aka where maybe I've said something in this chapter that contradicts something in another chapter) please leave me some feedback and let me know and I'll make the alterations/corrections. **


	9. Long, Long Night

Hey,

Thank you to everyone who left me feedback over the past few months between updates. I did try and write but then job hunting, college work and general life things got in the way and I didn't have the time and energy to write a single word. I've given up all hope of regular writing this year, my last at college because at the moment I have 8 projects to finish by Christmas and not enough time to do them in. I had to give up doing NaNoWriMo because I simply do not have enough hours in the day. Please keep leaving me feedback though, because every bit of feedback left makes me feel guilty for leaving you guys hanging and means that when I get a few spare hours, I'm more likely to sit down and try and get a few thousand words written so that eventually I will be able to post the next chapter. I find guilt to be a brilliant motivated because I hate how it feels and will do anything to make sure that I can make the guilt go away.

Sorry this chapter isn't brilliant. I don't think James comes across as being angry enough, but I didn't want him to be melodramatically, unbelievably angry so I was stuck with what I'm posting here. I hope you enjoy it but if you have any suggestions on how I could improve it, please please please please let me know, leave me some feedback.

Hugs and stuff

Katie

**Disclaimer:** I do not own or have any rights to anything mentioned, described and included in any Harry Potter related book/movie or product. This is just my interpretation of how Lily and James got together. All rights reserved to J.K. Rowling.

**Summary: After a confrontation with James after potions, Snape decides to seek his revenge in a way James will never expect against an old friend. Will James realize what he's up to in time to stop him before someone important gets hurt?**

**Innocent Victim**

**Chapter Nine: Long, Long Night  
**

**James' P.O.V.**

Sirius popped his head through the gap in the curtain surrounding Lily's hospital bed, holding his hands up as if in surrender, showing that he was unarmed. "I come in peace! Don't hex me!" He called out to me as I by her bed, where I'd been ever since she'd been brought to the hospital wing soon after she'd collapsed in the main hall. Several times, Madame Pomfrey had tried to shoo me out, insisting that I was getting in her way and that I was better off going to afternoon lessons, that I could do no good sitting here and waiting. I'd just given her a look full of the contempt that I felt that deserves and remained sat down in my chair, wand laid across lap in easy reach and glared at anyone who came near.

I wasn't about to leave her anytime soon, knowing that someone in this school had poisoned her. You just don't expect this kind of thing to happen in a school. I felt guilty, we'd known that Snape had threatened her and we should have expected something like this to happen. We should have been ready for this!

I'd been holding her hand, gently rubbing small circles on the back of her cool hand. "Shut up, Sirius," I told him quietly, in a voice that told him not to mess with me at the moment. I didn't look up to meet his eyes, just saw him moving out of the corner of my eye, going to sit on the chair on the other side of her bed. "This isn't something to joke about," I reached out with my other hand to my wand and wrapped my fingers around the cool wood.

Sirius sighed, his expression forming into a frown as he walked towards the bedside. Sirius rarely ever frowns, he likes to try and find a joke or something good in every situation. I guess it comes from growing up in the stifling, controlling and highly prejudiced Black house, making him need to look forward and believe that life can only get better because if he spent all his time dwelling on the bad things he'd probably go crazy.

He stood awkwardly on the other side of the bed looking down at Lily. "I know, James," He reached out and stroked her cheek softly. Irrationally my gut clenched in a mixture of anger and jealousy at the gesture. I know he doesn't like her as anything more than a friend, if you can call bantering and teasing each other whenever the opportunity arises friendship. "Has she woken up at all?" He asked as he pulled his hand away.

I shook my head. "No, Pomfrey says that her body suffered huge trauma from the poison and that her body needs to rest in order to get better and the best way to do it is to let her sleep." I hadn't understood why when Madame Pomfrey had dealt with the poison and removed it from Lily's body, why she hadn't made Lily wake up so we could definitely see if Lily was okay. Then if Pomfrey was certain Lily was fine, they could give her a Dreamless Sleep Draught and then her body could get all the rest it needed. That way everyone would know she was fine and then she could rest, it would kill two birds with one stone.

Sirius wrinkled his nose in thought. "Well, Moony always says that apparently that natural sleep is better than a medicated one," He pointed out.

"And where did he find out that little gem of information?" I asked sarcastically.

Lily told me once about a muggle saying that when something like: talk of the Devil and the Devil shall appear. Well, when Lupin approached so quietly that I didn't even hear his footsteps on the stone floor, an ability I swear he gets from being a werewolf, and appeared by the bedside saying, "I believe it was Madame Pomfrey that told me that," it was little surprised I instinctively raised my wand and aimed it directly at his heart. This whole situation had put me on edge and I was reacting instinctively to protect Lily from any threats.

Just as Sirius had when he'd arrived, at the sight of my wand pointing straight at his heart, Moony raised his hands out of the pocket of his robes and held them up in the air to show he was unarmed. "Relax James," He glared at me. "We get your upset about what's happened but don't you think you're over reacting? Lily's fine and no one is going to hex her or poison her or hurt her in the Hospital Wing,"

That really got my back up. "Oh, really?" I raised my eyebrow sarcastically, working hard to keep my voice as calm as I possibly could, even as I lowered my wand. "Because no one ever gets hurts or poisoned here in Hogwarts, do they? And as part of Hogwarts, no one could possibly hurt anyone in the Hospital Wing," I snapped at him.

Remus rolled his eyes. "There are spells in place around this wing of the castle that stops hexes from working," He pointed out calmly.

"That's not going to stop someone poisoning her again!" The one person who I thought would understand how serious this was and yet he seemed to be acting like this was nothing. What the hell was wrong with Moony tonight? It wasn't like Lily had just snubbed her toe or twisted her ankle or some trivial injury like that.

He sighed. "I get your upset about this and I'm angry too that someone would do this to Lily, but do you really think Dumbledore is going to sit there and do nothing about this?" Moony pointed out to me. "He's up in his office questioning everyone who was near Lily at dinner. He's not going to let this rest,"

"Yeah, because whoever did it is going to own up and that they tried to poison another student." I said disgustedly. "The only people who were near Lily at lunch was myself, the people on either side of us who probably barely noticed we there and that weird Hufflepuff first year."

"Fitzgerald?" Moony questioned and I nodded. I didn't know the boys name or anything but if Moony, who prides himself in knowing everyone's name, says that the kid's name is Fitzgerald then I'll take his word for it. "He's a second year," He told me impatiently.

Sirius, who'd been quiet up until this point content to watch from the side as this happened, piped up at this moment. "And why exactly does that matter?"

Moony sighed. "It doesn't," He admitted. "But his best friend's brother is a fifth year Slytherin, one of those big louts who follow Snape and Mulciber around, hanging on to every word that comes out of their foul mouths. He's also not brilliant at magic and, as harsh as this sounds, he's easy to push around and easy to manipulate,"

Sirius snapped his fingers as if something had just occurred to him. "He's the one who is the child of a Squib!" He told me with a weird light in his eyes. "I overheard my father and his cronies getting all wound up about the thought of some Squib's kid coming to Hogwarts just before I ran away last year. I'm pretty sure they were talking about appealing to the Minister to ban him from being allowed to attend here."

"But he didn't have time to put poison into Lily's food," I pointed out. They were barking up completely the wrong tree here. "He was showing her some silly muggle 'magic' tricks,"

Moony looked as though he was about to say something but then turned towards the direction of the doorway that led into the ward. We all waited in silence as footsteps and a muffled conversation headed filtered into the room. Sirius walked over to the curtain and stuck his head round as whoever it was entered the room.

He turned back to face us. "It's Dumbledore and Lily's parents," He whispered. "Guess your going to be kicked out now, James."

I frowned. I didn't want to leave Lily, not even for her parents but I doubt Dumbledore would let me. Madame Pomfrey might not have been able to get me to leave but you can't exactly turn around and tell the greatest wizard whose ever lived no, especially when he's the headmaster of your school and he's managed to help you worm out of some pretty big scrapes and screw ups that you get yourselves into. Briefly, the thought of using a quick sticking charm to stick my butt to this chair crossed my mind, but then figured that if, miracle of miracles, one day I ever get the chance to ask Mr. Evans if I might marry his youngest daughter, the incident might come back to haunt me.

The footsteps approached the bed and I could hear the Dumbledore softly explaining to the Lily's parents about the treatment that Pomfrey was using in an attempt to reassure them. His wizened hand appeared through the gap in the curtain as he opened the curtain and stepped aside so Mrs. Evans and her husband could step through. They barely glanced at us as they hurried to the bedside. Well, Mrs. Evans barely noticed us. Lily's father, I noticed, glared at each one of us before he focused on his daughter, almost snatching her limp hand out mine.

"Ah, I see some of your daughter's housemates are here," Dumbledore said softly and Lily's mother looked up at us, brushing a strand of black hair out of her eyes as she did so, even as her father continued to ignore me. Looking at Lily's parents, I wondered where she had inherited her beautiful red hair and green eyes from because she resembled neither of her parents. "This is James Potter, this year's Head Boy who was with Lily at dinner, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, who was Lily's patrol partner when she was a prefect,"

I nodded at her mother. "Nice to meet you, ma'am," I said politely, remembering all those lectures in manners that my own mother had given me in the past. It seemed like the politest greeting I could think of but even as I said it felt too trivial, like we'd just been introduced at a party or something. I wanted to say something else but couldn't quite think what to say so settled for tagging on, "I'm really sorry about what happened," to the end of the sentence. It still didn't feel right but it was the best that I could come up with and I was sorry, more sorry that they could ever know, because I'd known that Snape had threatened Lily and I'd known they'd do something sneaky and underhand but I never thought they'd do something like this.

She frowned for a moment as she at me, meeting my gaze as she seemed to assess my words. Meeting those dark eyes, I felt for a moment like she was looking deep inside me, seeing what I was like as a person and judging me for it. It seemed to go on for eternity but then she blinked and I managed to tear my gaze away from hers. She reached across and shook my hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Thank you, James," She said quietly, in a voice that sounded just like her daughters. "Madame Pomfrey said that you've been sat with her all day,"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dumbledore shooing Sirius and Moony through the corner and knew I would soon be asked to follow them. "I just didn't want her to wake up and be on her own," I admitted quietly. "And I needed to make sure that she really was okay. She's important to all of us Gryffindors,"

"Particularly to you, thought," Mrs. Evans gave me a wan smile as Mr Evans looked up angrily at her.

"Gwyneth, don't encourage him," He said quickly. "He's trouble,"

"Oh, Paul, he's just a boy yet," Gwyneth said calmly but firmly. "All boys are trouble when they're growing up. He's looking out for our little girl, you should be grateful!"

Mr Evans looked like he was about to argue with that which would have been awkward to have to watch. Thankfully, Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Perhaps it would be better if Mr. Potter went and reassured Lily's friends as to her condition," He said politely, diplomatically coming up with a way to avert any arguments.

I climbed awkwardly to my feet, "Sure," I agreed hastily, crossing over to the curtain. "I hope she gets better soon," I told her parents quickly before disappearing through the gap in the curtain, feeling like the biggest fool on the planet. I pride myself on always knowing what to say in any situation, but when I needed that ability the most it completely deserted me. Honestly, they must think I'm an idiot or something.

Padfoot and Moony were waiting for me by the doorway. "Merlin, that was awkward," Sirius chuckled nervously as we left the room. "It just reinforces how right I am to not meet Clarissa's parents just yet,"

Moony rolled his eyes. "You can't keep putting it off forever, Padfoot. One of these days, if you're serious about her, you'll just have to bite the bullet and go for it,"

It was then Sirius's turn to roll his eyes. "Whatever, Moony," He shrugged, refusing to be drawn on the subject. I don't think, despite how it appears to the outside world, that Padfoot is all that serious about Clarissa and I don't think she'd madly in love with him either. Both of them are quite independent people, but even the most independent people need someone to hold onto when life gets hard, that coupled with hormones, I don't think either expect the relationship to last once we leave school. "So, this Fitzgerald kid, he just came over and started pulling these muggle tricks?" He switched subjects, reverting back to the previous conversation that the arrival of Lily's parents had interupted, his voice firm. Any discussion on his relationship with Clarissa was strictly out of bounds to the rest of us.

"Yeah," I shrugged. "Lily had just picked out what she wanted to eat and the kid came over and sat next to her, wanting to show her this trick he'd just learnt or something. I didn't get how they worked and Lily said something about the hand being quicker than the eye and the klutz went and knocked her goblet over, spilling pumpkin juice all over Lily," I remembered.

Moony winced. "Poor kid," He sympathised. "Spilling pumpkin juice over Lily, he'll never live that one down,"

I shrugged, "At least it was Lily he spilt it down. Any other girl would have gone mental if he'd spilt it over her," A ghost of a smile formed on my face. "Lily calmly dried her robes with a quick spell and told him to pour her another drink, like nothing had happened."

Padfoot stopped dead at this. "He poured her the new drink?" He demanded, brows knitting together in thought.

"Yeah," I nodded, "So what?"

"I've read about these muggle magic tricks," He shrugged. "Found a book about them in an old junk shop in Diagon Alley a few years ago that I thought would annoy my parents if they found out I was learning about Muggle tricks."

"And?" Moony asked curiously.

"Well, half of them seemed to involved hiding hidden cards or stuff like that up your sleeve so that the audience can't see it but you can easily slip it out without anyone seeing it." Sirius explained. "If this kid is obsessed with tricks like that he's probably pretty good at slight of hand stuff like that. He could have hidden whatever it was up his sleeve, deliberately knocked the goblet over and then added the powder to the new drink as he was pouring it,"

I frowned, the theory making a lot of sense. "But why would he want to poison Lily?" I demanded. Fitzgerald looked like he was the kind of person who wouldn't hurt a fly. Besides, as the son of squib, he wouldn't really have much against a Muggleborn. They both faced pretty much the same kind of treatment from the purebloods. "And I would have seen whatever it was going into the drink."

They both shook their heads at this and almost simultaneously rolled their eyes at this. I swear their eyes must have huge muscles from all the eye rolling they've been doing tonight. "I doubt you would have noticed, James," Moony observed. I opened my mouth to deny it but he cut me off quickly, "Partly because you're always too busy watching Lily when she's around and partly, unless your specifically looking out for sleights of hand like that, they're pretty much impossible to spot,"

I felt a fresh wave of hatred and anger bubble up inside me, at the thought that someone who Lily trusted would have the nerve to do something so devious and underhand, something that could have killed her if we hadn't have gotten Lily to Pomfrey in time! Even when I was at my worst, I never slipped anything harmful into someone's food or drink. I was always upfront and open with my pranks and hexes and no one was ever seriously hurt. Even then I knew where to draw a line at was dangerous.

My hands clenched and balled into fists by my side and a black frown settled on my face. "Where the hell is the little slimeball?" I demanded, struggling to keep my tone even. It would do no good to start fighting with my own friends right now.

Sirius gave me an understanding look. "He's probably down in the Hufflepuff common room." He offered the information forward, bringing an irritated snort of annoyance from Moony. "We saw Sprout escorting him out of Dumbledore's office just before Lily's parent's arrived. We followed them down to the Main Hall and it looked like they were heading down to the basement,"

I grabbed hold of his arm and started down the corridor, tugging Sirius behind me, knowing that he would back me up in anything like this. "Come on," I called back to Moony, "Let's find this Fitzgerald kid and find out what the devil he was doing putting poison into Lily's drink!"

Not bothering to check if Moony was following us, knowing that he would probably disapprove of any kind of action carried out by us, so I was surprised to find my feet suddenly glued to the floor. I tried to take another step down the corridor, shoving my hands into my pocket searching for my wand to undo whatever spell Moony had cast, but found the momentum pulled me and Padfoot to a jumbled heap on the floor as both our wands flew out of our pockets, presumably into Moony's waiting hand.

"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded. "We have to find out just what the hell Fitzgerald is up to! Unhex us now, Moony!"

"No, not until you calm down?"

"How, in Merlin's name, do you expect me to be calm when someone poisoned Lily!" I demanded angrily. "Do you just want me to sit back and do nothing, let the teachers try and deal with this and end up letting the culprits get away with it!"

I tried to turn my head to glare up at Moony as I finally heard his footsteps heading down the corridor towards us but the way Padfoot and I had landed in a heap on the corridor, it would have involved my face getting closer to a part of his body that I never, ever want to be all that up close and personal with so I didn't. Instead I settled for mentally cursing him. "I understand that your angry about this, James, I really do. Lily is my friend too and I want to find the person who did this to her and beat the living daylights out of them," He sighed and in that moment, I think I realised just how much Remus cared about Lily, far more than the simple friendship that I thought was between the two of them. "But there is no point in going in, all wands blazing and tossing out accusations like leprechaun gold," Moony said firmly. "We don't know if Fitzgerald had anything to do with this in the first place. For all we know someone could have planted the stuff down in the kitchen, aiming for any Gryffindor at that end of the table and not aiming specifically at Lily," He pointed out, trying to calm my anger down a little and force me to think more rationally about this.

Unfortunately, the dose of logic that did slightly infiltrate my brain pointed out the problem with that argument almost straight away. "You know that idea is rubbish," I said hotly. "Do you really think the House Elves wouldn't notice something like that? And if it was really the jug of pumpkin juice or the plates food was poisoned, then how come no one else is lying unconscious in the hospital wing?"

For a moment, it seemed like Moony was lost for words, like he wasn't really expecting me to come up with such a reasonable argument. But he still didn't undo the hex and let me go about my mission. "But that still doesn't mean Fitzgerald did it," He pointed out calmly. I hated his calmness. How on earth could he be so calm about something like this? It just isn't natural.

Sirius swore at this moment. "Merlin's beard, Moony, let us up!" He snarled angrily. "Is this really the kind of argument we want to be having in an open corridor where Fudge could appear at any moment, looking for the merest wiff of trouble to land us in a months worth of detentions!"

Moony sighed and undid the spell, grabbing each one of us by the shoulders and hauling us to our feet. "Come on, there's that secret passage further down that should take us down to the corridor leading to the kitchen." He muttered, glaring at us both when we held out hands out for our wands. "I'm not giving you your wand back until you calm down, James. The last thing we want is for you to lose your rag and put the kid in the Hospital Wing. The last thing Lily needs right now is you being kicked out of school,"

I ground my teeth together in anger to stop me saying something I would regret later. Moony, as usual, was probably right about taking a calm approach to this but right now I was too angry to care. If left to my own devices, he was right; I probably would get myself kicked out of school by acting too hastily and then who would keep an eye out on whatever dark magic plots Snivellus and his Death Eater in training friends were hatching? I might have screwed up this time but you can bet your last knut that I'll make sure that nothing like this happens again.

Mind you, I didn't just need my wand to inflict damage. A good punch to the gut or face would work just as well as well placed hex. It just wouldn't be as dignified as using my wand. Resorting to Muggle Brawling is not my preferred method but it would do in this situation. I really, really, really wanted somebody to hurt for this, for someone to suffer for every last little bit of pain they'd inflicted on Lily.

I marched down the corridor behind Moony, temper fuming but I was trying to force a measure of calmness into it. It just wasn't going well. We reached the secret passage, hidden behind a statue of some old troll king and ducked inside, careful to shut the tiny door behind us, shutting us into the dark passage while shutting the rest of the world out, while we hammered this argument out.

"Give me my wand back," I ground out through my gritted teeth. It was so black inside this passage and I knew from past experience that there were many steps and pitfalls that could catch you out if you weren't careful.

"No," Moony sighed. I think he has slightly better sight than the rest of us, probably another by product of his lycanthropy, though he's always denied it. Somehow, he's always able to see slightly better than the rest of us in the dark.

Padfoot cursed under his breath. "Moony, give us our wands back now!" He demanded, almost rudely. "Unlike some people, we can't see as well in the dark and need our wands so we can light our way," Patience is not one of Padfoot's strong points, especially when he's irritated and particularly when he's in a small, dark and confined place. Ever since his parent's locked him in a cupboard that a Boggart had made its home in for two whole days for some minor mistake, Sirius has been not only claustrophobic but also very lygophobic as well ever since. This must be hell for him right now.

I sighed, "Give Padfoot his wand back, Moony," I sighed impatiently. "You can keep my wand if it makes you feel happy but let Sirius have a bit of light,"

We always try not to make a big deal out of Padfoot's problem, after all everyone is scared of something, but I really do think that Moony was being a bit insensitive right now. There were some rustling noises ahead of me which I took to be Moony passing the wand back to Padfoot. There was a grunt of thanks from Padfoot followed by the quick swish of the wand which produced a beam of light that was enough to light up the entire passageway for all of us. I really didn't need my wand to see where I was going because the floor where most of the trip hazard were clearly visible and I could see the shadows of Padfoot and Moony just ahead of me.

"So, why are you sticking up for Fitzgerald?" I demanded, needing to fill the silence.

"Because we don't know for sure that he did it,"

"You were the one who brought up the point that he had the opportunity and motive to do it," I argued back. "Who else could it possibly have been?"

Moony sighed. "In an ordinary situation, Fitzgerald is Lily's friend and he'd never even dream of trying to hurt her." He pointed out. "The guy is afraid of his own shadow most of the time and spends most of his life trying to attract as little attention as possible. Why would he do something like that? Especially when he has no reason to want to hurt any of the Muggleborns in the school."

"So?" I said belligerently. "He's the only person who could have possibly done it,"

Moony sighed. "So you keep telling me, James," He told me grumpily. "But like I told you before when you probably weren't even paying attention, Fitzgerald's mother is a squib."

"And his father was an Unspeakable," Sirius joined in. "From what I overheard Malfoy's father telling my own dear Father a couple of years ago, Fitzgerald senior was pretty damn high up the ranks of Unspeakables working for the Department of Mysteries,"

Something clicked inside of my head. The name vaguely rang a bell but for a moment I couldn't for the life of me remember why it rang a bell. Then the knut dropped. "Wait a minute, wasn't he one of the twelve people who went missing when that pub was attacked? Just before we started term?"

"That would be the one," He sighed. "The kid's mum is now alone in her home with no way of protecting herself should the Death Eaters decide to make her their next target."

"Making Fitzgerald a easy target for the Slytherins," Moony said logically. "If Snape and his thugs are behind all this, they know they couldn't get near enough to Lily to slip something in her food or drink without you getting suspicious where as someone like Fitzgerald who they could easily threaten and who Lily wouldn't think twice about talking to,"

I find it absolutely disgusting, if this turns out to be the case, that Snape would threaten some shy little kid's mother to get him to do so a horrible and nasty thing to someone who has never been anything but kind to the little boy. The poor kid is probably sat in his dorm room now, terrified that not only the fact that Lily might die from whatever it was that he put in her drink, but that if caught he'll probably get expelled from school where they'd snap his wand and he'd end up being just a vulnerable to the Death Eaters as his mother. And if he doesn't get caught out for this, Snape and his cronies will probably try and drag him into other plots they will no doubt come up with.

A well of pity filled my heart when I thought of the poor kid, if indeed he yet another innocent victim in all of this, just a pawn in a malicious and twisted boys power games. We'd have to go and confront this kid and find out what he knows, but I wouldn't use my wand or my fists on the Hufflepuff boy unless he really intended to hurt Lily.

"Guess we'd better go and talk to him," I sighed as we drew near to a flight of stairs that would take us down to the basement levels of the castle, quite close to the life like painting of a woodland scene. I've never actually been inside the Hufflepuff common room or dormitories because we've never really had a reason to prank the Hufflepuffs; they're not really a threat of the Quidditch pitch and they don't really side with the extreme viewpoint on the purity of blood that a few people in Ravenclaw and most of the Slytherin house subscribe to. "If we can find out what the hell happened, we can take it from there, I guess,"

The thought of having to be calm about all this and talk rationally when I just wanted to hex the daylights out of someone for doing this to Lily was galling though. I was so angry that I wanted to hurt someone, wanted to make them suffer how Lily must have suffered when the poison started rushing through her system. I wanted to make someone else hurt for all the long, endless minutes when I sat holding her hands, watching her small body convulse and thrash about as her body struggled against the violent effects of the drugs in her body. No one, least of all Lily, deserved that and I wasn't going to let whoever had planned this get a way with it. Logic tells me that Snape is behind all of this but as much as I despise the creep and everthing he stands for, I just can't believe that he would ever order something like this. Lily could have been killed! As much as Snivellus hates me, a part of me refuses to think that he would ever want to seriously hurt her to lash out at me.

Still, I'd stay as cool and as calm as possible until we found out which little slimeball had hatched this little plan but the minute we found them, I'd make sure that they'd end up in the Hospital Wing long enough to make sure that the minute they ever think about doing something like that again, they'd have second and third thoughts.

Something told me that tonight would be a long, long night.


End file.
